The Master Emerald's Daughter
by NetRaptor
Summary: After the events of Knuckles Boom, Shadow is reunited with Maria in the hospital even as Knuckles rages about losing Angel Island. But when new enemies appear to capture Maria, a chaos control accident separates Maria, Shadow, Knuckles and Metal Sonic from the others. Will our heroes retake the island from Eggman, or will the Other kill them all?
1. Chapter 1

This story is the sequel to Knuckles Boom, my previous fanfic. If you haven't read that, go read it and come back. This is what happens when the Sonic Boom Knuckles and friends run across chaos emeralds and Angel Island.

* * *

Shadow pushed open the hospital doors and walked inside. Outwardly he was his calm, tough self-a sleek black hedgehog with red stripes on his spines, arms and legs. Gold bracelets ringed his ankles and wrists. His shoes were red and white hover skates. He wore a leather belt around his waist with several pouches on it.  
Inwardly, he was a trembling mess of terror and joy. Maria was here, in this hospital. Maria, his beloved sister, who had been lost to him for decades.  
He approached the front desk, treading softly on the polished floor, as if afraid of leaving tracks. "I've come to see Maria."  
The receptionist was a red squirrel who looked him over carefully. "She's available for visitors. However, threats have been made against her. You're not working for Eggman, are you?"  
Shadow stood rigid, muscles tense. Threats? Eggman?  
He forced a smile. "I'm here to deal with those threats. And no, I have nothing to do with Eggman."  
"Second floor, room 212," the receptionist said. "You're Shadow, aren't you?"  
He nodded.  
"She's been asking for you."  
The black hedgehog strode toward the elevators, keeping his stride measured, confident, in control. Inwardly, he wanted to run and scream her name, kick down every door that separated them.  
The elevator took an eternity to travel one floor. Shadow's soul stretched like a rubber band, tighter and thinner every second, in danger of breaking. The doors slowly slid open. He stepped out and made his way down the hall toward room 212. Walking. Projecting confidence. Head high, eyes forward.  
The door was closed, the final barrier. He grasped the handle. If it had been locked, he probably would have ripped it off its hinges. But it turned easily, allowing him entrance.  
The room was dim. A single lamp burned low on a bedside table. Maria, a human, lay in the bed, propped up on pillows, eyes closed, hands resting on top of the blankets.  
Shadow's heart swelled until it threatened to choke him. She was really here. It wasn't a lie or a dream. After all those years of solitude, of piercing loneliness, of hearing her voice in his dreams - here she was. Alive. Breathing. Free of the stasis tube.  
He crept to the bed, heart thundering, hardly daring to breathe. His eyes devoured her face. She was so thin, so much older than he had last seen her. Her wrists and hands were mere sketches of bone under skin. Her eyes were sunken beneath her brows, the cheekbones sharply defined. Yet a tinge of pink colored her cheeks. He touched her hand and it was warm. Health would return.  
Shadow's fingers curled around her thin hand. She was really here. Really alive. He bent over her hand and kissed it, then pressed his cheek against it.  
Maria's eyes opened. They were brilliant, vivid blue, bringing her wasted face to life. Power burned within them, and such violent, compressed, vivid life, it was as if she contained the entire jungle with its riot of plants and animals-growing, expanding, fighting for sunlight.  
But the vivacity was tempered by love. As Shadow stared at her, he saw the tenderness in her face-the adoration he shared so deeply.  
"Shadow," she said, smiling. "I knew you would come." She held out her arms.  
He sat on the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her, pressing his cheek to hers. She was real. Really here, not a dream. His heart hurt and hot tears stung his eyes. "Maria," he choked. "It's been so long."  
One of her hands stroked the other side of his face, gentle and welcoming. "I've missed you so, dear one. The others couldn't tell me anything about you. Have you no friends?"  
"No," he whispered, his voice barely working. "Don't ever, ever leave me again." The tears overflowed and cascaded down his face. The first he'd shed in fifty long years. Not since the day they had slid her into the tube, filled it with fluid, sent her to sleep in the hopes that it might cure her disease.  
Maria wiped them away with a corner of the blanket. "Don't cry, Shadow." Some of his own pain resonated in her voice. "We're together again. Aren't you happy?"  
He sat up, wiping his face, grinning like a fool. "Terribly." The pain inside him went on and on, threatening to become all-out bawling. _Control it. Control yourself._ He sat with his eyes shut for a moment, breathing deeply, mastering the wild emotions.  
"Shadow, I've changed," Maria said in a low voice. "I can chaos control now."  
He slid back to sit at the foot of the bed, where he could study every nuance of her face. "They were training you before the sickness, remember?" His voice was steadier now. He could cry some other time.  
Maria shook her head. "They plugged me into the Master Emerald. It's in my blood now. It ... changed me, Shadow. I don't think I'm human anymore."  
That explained the life that burned in her eyes, the power he sensed inside her. "I didn't see the facility, Maria. What's the Master Emerald?"  
"The king of all chaos crystals," she replied, gazing over his head and into her memories. "I am its princess. Its daughter."  
Shadow's spines prickled, sending tingles through the top of his head, where the chaos crystal in his skin forced his spines to grow red. "Rocks don't have kids."  
She beamed at him. "I meant that its power has infused me, silly. I worked chaos control on the way here."  
"How did you escape?" Shadow asked. "All I got were confused impressions." _Of Sonic_ , he didn't say. _Of that stupid blue hedgehog and his stupid friends, rescuing Maria when it should have been me awakening her._  
Maria recounted opening her eyes and seeing the red echidna as he wrapped her in blankets. "Then he carried me out of the complex. It was under attack by robots. Thousands of them, Shadow! A fat man with a mustache was their leader."  
"Eggman," Shadow said through his teeth. "What did he think he was doing?"  
"He claimed ownership of the entire island," Maria went on. "He said that included me, but the echidna didn't buy it."  
One of Shadow's hands closed into a fist. Eggman had tried to claim ownership of Maria? Ferocious rage tried to build inside him. Shadow locked it away. _No. Control yourself._  
"I don't understand the politics now," Maria concluded. "Has GUN disappeared?"  
Shadow nodded. "They disbanded twenty years ago when the Western Union collapsed. Now it's a lot of little warring countries. I'm afraid nobody cares about you and me anymore."  
"Except Eggman," Maria pointed out. "Who is he working for?"  
"Himself. He provides the power for Bygone Island-that's where we are now. He harasses the village with robots, but Sonic and the rest hold them off."  
Maria leaned forward, clasping her hands around one knee. "Tell me about Sonic and the rest. Who are they?"  
Shadow clenched his teeth and looked away. "A bunch of meddling idiots."  
Maria clicked her tongue. "Now, now, don't be like that. First, who is the red echidna?"  
"Knuckles. Big, strong, and dumb as a bag of concrete."  
"And the blue hedgehog?"  
"Sonic. Runs fast, slightly less stupid, but not much."  
Maria's face fell. "He was hurt."  
Shadow couldn't imagine Sonic being hurt. "He was probably faking."  
"He had a terrible laser burn across his chest. I could smell it."  
Shadow shrugged. "He'll get over it." Sonic wasn't worthy of compassion.  
"What about the fox with two tails?"  
"He's called Tails. Eggman in the making. All he does is build machines. It's creepy."  
"There were two girls. One was a pink hedgehog, I think?"  
"Amy. Sonic's not-girlfriend." Shadow snickered. He had watched their not-romantic relationship for years and it hurt him inside. It was easier to make fun of them and disdain them than allow himself to feel any more pain.  
"And the brown one?"  
"Sticks. I think she's some kind of badger. Certifiably crazy."  
Maria rested her chin on her knees. "So that's who they are. Why don't you make friends with them? They seem really nice. They care about each other."  
Shadow turned his head and gazed out the window.  
Maria tilted her head. "I can't read your mind, love. The psychic link is one way."  
Shadow fiddled with a wrinkle in the blanket. "Fifty years has changed me, too, Maria. I'm so much older than any of them. I had to live alone so I could hear you. Too much noise drowns out the connection. I never knew if you might call for me to come save you." He tried to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice, but failed.  
Maria gazed at him a long moment without speaking. "You're jealous that they saved me."  
Jealous. Yes. It was shameful, petty, foolish, but he was jealous just the same. He couldn't meet her eyes and tried to smooth away the wrinkle instead.  
She sighed. "Dear, dear Shadow, fifty years haven't changed you a bit. Now here we are, old, but not grown up. What will become of us?"  
He took her hand again with another surge of tenderness. "You're not old."  
She squeezed his fingers. "I'm sixty years old, Shadow dear. By human standards, I'm more than halfway through my lifetime."  
"But you've been in stasis," Shadow pointed out. "It doesn't count." The long years weighed heavily on him, too, but he didn't mention it.  
She smiled and shook her head. "Perhaps it would matter if I were still human. But I'm a chaos creature now. Age doesn't mean quite as much as it used to."  
He opened his mouth to reply, but footsteps rang outside the hospital door. The knob turned, admitting a blue tiger and an orange hyena. Both wore business suits and ties. They didn't quite look like doctors.  
Shadow stood, blocking their way to Maria. "Can I help you?"  
The tiger gave him a cold smile. "What a pleasure to finally meet you, Shadow. I'm Tasha Hunter, and this is Hylee Snicker. We've come with a business proposition."

* * *

Knuckles stood on the beach as the sun sank into the ocean, his shadow stretching behind him like a fragment of the darkness in his heart. The wind blew his red dreadlocks away from his face and made his eyes smart. Still he stood there, fists at his sides, gazing out to sea as if considering walking into the water with no plan to return.  
Sonic approached quietly, his red sneakers soundless on the wet sand. He hesitated a moment, as if he considered running away. Then he stood beside his friend and gazed at the sunset over the sea. The fading light picked out the white dressing that covered the laser burn that stretched from his shoulder to his opposite armpit.  
Knuckles didn't look at him. "We have to get it back." His voice was low and intense.  
"Yeah, I know." Sonic scooped up a surf-smoothed pebble and skipped it across the water, pretending his burn didn't hurt. "What a dirty trick. Buying the freaking island out from under us."  
"It's ours!" Knuckles exclaimed, smashing his fists together. "The Speaker granted us the ability to become the island's crew! How can a piece of paper compete with that?"  
"Oh, you know." Sonic skipped another pebble. "Real estate laws. Money. Corporations with more power than we have. The usual."  
Knuckles roared his frustration to the evening sky and slammed a fist into the sand. A shockwave like a fat ripple spread outward from the point of impact.  
Sonic jumped over it. "Maybe we can get Eggman to sell it back."  
"With what money, Sonic?" Knuckles punched the sand again, creating another shockwave. "I've been kicked off my own island! It's not fair!"  
"It's not fair for anybody," Sonic said, pointing at his bandages. "Exhibit A."  
Knuckles stood up, panting, dusting sand from his hands. For the first time he seemed to see Sonic properly. "What are you doing out here? Amy said you needed to rest."  
Sonic threw another rock. "Pain meds kicked in. I'm okay." He stooped for another rock, his arm moving a little slower than usual. Despite the expert flick of his wrist, the stone only skipped once. Sonic always skipped stones at least three times.  
"No, you're not," Knuckles said in a low voice.  
Sonic gave him a sharp look. "Lay off, Knux. You're Angel Island's guardian, not Sonic Hedgehog's guardian."  
Knuckles opened his mouth to argue, but something punched him in the brain.


	2. Chapter 2

It felt like an actual blow at first. Knuckles and Sonic staggered sideways from the force of the impact. But after a second, Knuckles realized that it was panic from another person. The Master Emerald! But how did a giant chaos crystal have feelings? What was Eggman doing to it?  
Fortunately, Sonic wasn't as deeply enmeshed with the island as Knuckles was. He had enough distance to recognize it. "It's that girl we rescued. She just whacked us with her mind. I think she's scared."  
"She's in danger!" Guilt smote Knuckles a heavy blow. He had stood guard over Maria for two days until the doctors insisted that he go home and get some sleep. He should have stayed with her. Eggman's robots were no doubt dragging her out of the hospital at that moment.  
"Dude, I've got this," Sonic said, and zipped away up the beach faster than the eye could follow.  
Knuckles ran after him, hopelessly slow. In his mind's eye, he traced Sonic's route up the beach, into Bygone Village, through the residential district into the tiny downtown, where the hospital stood cheek by jowl with the library and the Mayor's office. Sonic would be there in a few minutes. Knuckles would take half an hour.  
Maria felt like the Master Emerald. It staggered him. Her cry for help had felt exactly like the warm pressure of the car-sized gem in his mind. He had spent slabs of time with the gem, asking it questions, receiving answers in picture form. Always its power surrounded him, lapping him with comfort and welcome.  
How could a human girl feel so much like the most powerful chaos gem in the world? Maybe it was because she'd been plugged into it for so long. She had done things with chaos power that he had never seen before. Would he have to protect her as he did the Master Emerald? Especially since he couldn't seem to tell the difference between them?  
He slowed to a halt as he reached the road, resting his hands on his knees as he panted. As he regained his breath, he reached for Maria with his mind the way he reached for the Master Emerald with a question.  
Her life flashed in his mind like sunlight off a mirror. But it didn't come from the hospital. She was in the jungle now. Had Eggman's robots dragged her off?  
He wasn't wearing his headset, so he had no way of contacting Sonic. Instead, he changed directions, cutting diagonally across streets and front yards to where the jungle began. Maria was closer now. He reached for her again and felt her in the same place.  
Knuckles plunged into the trees, bulldozing through brush and ducking around trees, straining his eyes for a glimpse of metal, a flash of blond hair. Was she hurt? Would he hear her if she called for help?  
Her mind brushed his with awareness. He saw the Master Emerald in his mind: its green depths beckoning like still, cool water. He angled toward her, slowing to a walk, straining to hear over his own footsteps and heavy breathing.  
He rounded a tree and almost blundered into Maria. She sat on the ground in the fork of two tree roots the size of armchairs. Her knees were drawn to her chest with her arms wrapped around then, dressed in an impractical hospital gown. She gazed at Knuckles as if she had been waiting for him.  
"Maria!" Knuckles gasped, leaning against one of the tree roots. "What happened? Are you okay?"  
"I'm all right now, Knuckles," she said, her voice like singsong music. "Bad people came to the hospital. They wanted to use me to do bad things."  
Knuckles struggled to parse this with Eggman and robots. "People? Not giant robot bugs?"  
A new voice snarled, "People, you useless excuse for a Mobian."  
A black hedgehog stood on the other side of the tree roots, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. The red stripes on his spines shimmered a little in the twilight beneath the trees.  
Knuckles clenched his fists, but didn't otherwise move. "What do you want, Shadow?"  
"I want you to leave us alone," Shadow snapped, flinging down the bag. "Maria's safe with me."  
All Knuckles knew of Shadow was that he was a wandering troublemaker who lived like a hobo in the jungle somewhere. Sometimes he appeared and clashed with Sonic for almost no reason at all. Once he had joined forces with Lyric, then later claimed to be under mind control.  
"Maria isn't staying with the likes of you," Knuckles growled. "Where's she going to live? In the mud?"  
"You know nothing, echidna," Shadow spat. "They say you excel in knowing nothing. Maria is my sister."  
Knuckles looked from the fair-skinned, blond-haired human with the eyes like sapphires, to the black hedgehog with red stripes. "Sorry. I don't see the resemblance."  
Maria slowly stood on shaky legs, walking her hands up the tree trunk. Shadow sprang to her side and steadied her with quick, anxious gentleness. For a second, Knuckles glimpsed an expression he had never seen on the black hedgehog's face: a tender, gentle look, as if he handled a newborn kitten.  
"Do you want to come to my place?" Knuckles blurted. "It's pretty close by."  
Maria exchanged a quick look with Shadow, as if sharing a silent fear. Shadow had told the truth-these two shared a deep bond somehow.  
"Fine," Shadow muttered. "But if you see a tiger or a hyena in business suits, we're gone."  
"Business suits?" Knuckles said, blinking. "I thought Eggman was after you."  
"I don't know who they are," Shadow growled through his teeth. "But they're not taking Maria, whatever they say."  
Taking Maria? Knuckles gripped the top of the root so hard that his fingers peeled the bark away in two loops.  
Shadow helped Maria around and over the roots, half-carrying her. She could barely walk and clung to his arm. By the time they had gone ten feet, tears were streaming silently down her face from the exertion.  
Knuckles couldn't stand it. She had been asleep in a tube full of liquid two days ago. There was no way she could walk. Without a word he scooped her up in his arms.  
Shadow said nothing, but he made a violent movement as if intending to break Knuckles's arm. But Maria held up a hand. "No, it's better this way, love. I'm not strong."  
 _Love?_ She called Shadow _love?_  
Knuckles almost laughed, then caught the helpless, agonized look on the hedgehog's face. Maybe Shadow needed her to love him. He certainly seemed devoted to her.  
Knuckles set off at a careful walk, avoiding branches and sharp-edged palm fronds. "How did you guys get way out here if Maria can barely walk?"  
"Chaos control," Shadow and Maria answered in unison.  
Knuckles looked down at Maria, who was smiling, then at Shadow, who wasn't. "Is that how our sub mysteriously wound up on dry land?"  
Maria's smile seemed too wide for her thin face. "Yes! It was tricky to do, but the calculations were correct."  
Calculations? Knuckles checked Shadow for a clue, but Shadow looked baffled, too.  
Knuckles circled the outskirts of Bygone Village, winding up at the little community of cottages where he and his friends lived. There was no sign of a tiger or hyena. Knuckles took care to stay out of anyone else's sight, too. Since the sun had set and the shadows were long and blue, this was easy to do.  
Knuckles's hut was messy and disused, with weights and dirty socks everywhere. He hadn't felt like picking up after himself since losing Angel Island-the hut felt so small and flimsy after the stately stone walls of the island palace with their ornate engravings.  
Now, as he snapped on the light, the mess sent a hot flush of embarrassment to his cheeks. He set Maria on the unmade bed and silently set about tidying up.  
Shadow leaned against the wall with his arms folded. "You live in this dump?"  
"Shadow," Maria scolded. "Be nice. He's being very gracious to extend us hospitality like this. Thank you, Knuckles."  
Knuckles nodded as he dumped an armload of laundry into the hamper. "You guys want something to eat?"  
He had just begun to rummage in his rather empty refrigerator when the front door burst open. Sonic exploded inside, panting, spines mussed. "Knux! Maria's gone! Oh."  
Maria waved to him from the bed.  
Shadow stepped out from behind the open door. "Who did I say was dumb as concrete? Because this is him."  
"Shadow?" Sonic gasped, backing away as if he expected the black hedgehog to shiv him. "Knuckles, did you let Shadow in here?"  
Knuckles jerked his head at Maria. "They're together."  
Sonic folded his arms. "You're kidding me. Maria's been a vegetable in a tube for years, and you ..." He fired a glare at Shadow. "You've been a pain in the neck my whole life."  
Shadow crossed the room and stood between Sonic and Maria, hands at his sides. But Knuckles noticed the placement of Shadow's feet-shoulder width apart, one foot angled away from the other. Shadow was prepared to fight them both.  
"She's my sister," Shadow said. "I've waited for her to recover for fifty years."  
"Fifty years?" Sonic exclaimed. "Shads, you're an old geezer!"  
"And you're not worthy to lick my shoes," Shadow replied.  
"Ew." Sonic held up a hand. "I'll pass, thanks. You expect us to believe she's your sister? What are you, part human?"  
"She has been spliced with my DNA," Shadow said.  
Maria nodded. "It's true. They were trying to heal my lung disease."  
Sonic cast Knuckles a quick look, as if checking to see if he was hearing this. "And ... did they?"  
Maria closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, her chest expanding. "The Master Emerald did."  
That explained a lot. No wonder Knuckles could feel her in his mind the way he did the Master Emerald. She must have soaked up its power like a sponge.  
Sonic stepped outside for a moment. He returned with Amy, Tails, and Sticks trotting behind him, all looking flustered and hot from running.  
"Thank goodness you're all right!" Amy exclaimed, ignoring Shadow and rushing to Maria. She took the girl's hand and smoothed her hair like an anxious mother with a wayward child. "Where did you go? What happened?"  
Tails remained at Sonic's side, gazing at Shadow. "What's HE doing here?"  
Sticks took one look around and melted back outside.  
Knuckles held up both hands for attention. "Apparently there's a new player in this game, guys. A tiger and a hyena in business suits met them in the hospital. They wanted Maria. Right, Shadow?"  
Shadow nodded.  
Amy, Sonic and Tails exchanged worried looks. "They don't sound like they're from around here," Sonic said. "Nobody wears suits on Bygone. Why did they want her?"  
Shadow turned to Maria, as if asking permission to tell the story. She nodded. He faced them again, still in his relaxed fighting stance. "They said that Eggman works for them, and he's been holding out. They view Maria as ... as some kind of weapon." He stumbled over the words, as if the idea was foreign and repulsive. "They offered me money for her. Like she was some kind of _machine_. When I refused, they tried to take her by force."  
"And that's when you used chaos control," said Knuckles.  
Maria beamed. "Shadow's an artist with chaos control. We were gone before they could fire their weapons."  
"They pulled guns on you?" Sonic exclaimed.  
Shadow held up a hand. "We escaped. It doesn't matter."  
"It does too!" Sonic said, looking at Knuckles, Tails and Amy. "Who were these people who try to kidnap helpless girls?"  
Maria's voice was clear and soft, like the chiming of a bell. "They said they represented National Machine Enterprises."  
Knuckles had never heard of them, and shrugged. But Amy straightened, pushing back her pink spines. "Oh, NME! I was reading about them in the Business World Journal. They're arms dealers who outfitted Hira and Jinnan for that war they're having right now."  
"Eggman is working for arms dealers?" Tails said, eyes wide. "No wonder he iterates his robots so often!"  
Several horrible puzzle pieces connected in Knuckles's head. "So that's where Eggman got the money to buy our island. And why they think Maria's a weapon." He frowned at the girl on the bed. "Are you?"  
She looked down at her hands. When she didn't answer, Shadow said, "That's ridiculous."  
"She's spliced with your DNA," Knuckles said. "And she can work chaos control."  
Shadow glared at all of them, then turned to Maria. "If that makes you a weapon, then so am I."  
There was an awkward pause. It was broken as the door opened and Sticks walked in with an armload of Mehburger bags. "I wanted dinner, but it's rude to eat in front of other people."  
A strange dinner party followed. Everyone sat in chairs, on various exercise equipment, or on the floor to eat their burgers. Shadow camped beside Maria on the floor, bolting his food as if he expected any of them to jump him at any second. Maria nibbled half her burger, then pushed it away with a sigh. "I forgot how delicious real food is."  
Amy hovered near her, as if she expected Maria to be too weak to help herself. "It's probably not the best thing to eat in your weakened state. Shadow, can she spend the night at my place? I can feed her highly nutritious meals that will rejuvenate her cells."  
Shadow glared at her. "Maria isn't safe in Bygone Village. Those corporate people will track her down."  
"Shadow, dude," said Sonic from his perch on an exercise bench. "Look at her. She can barely walk. You can't take her hiding in the jungle. She'll get malaria or something."  
"What do you suggest?" Shadow snapped.  
"We'll look after her," Tails said. "Help her get strong again. You can help Sonic do security and fight Eggman."  
Shadow made a face like Tails had suggested he sleep in the garbage. "I'd rather go crabbing in January again."  
Sonic's eyebrows shot up. "Again?"  
Amy stood up, holding out both arms. "Listen, everybody. I know we don't see eye to eye. But we're all in this together. Shadow, we share your responsibility for Maria. Let us help you both."  
Shadow jumped to his feet, spines bristling, fists clenched. But before he could rage at them, Maria laid a hand on his shoulder. "Shadow dear, it's all right. We need their help, and they need ours."  
It was like she had thrown cold water in his face. Shadow slowly slumped, his spines drooping. But he gave Amy a savage look. "Where she goes, I go."  
"Done," Amy said.  
Knuckles watched all this and said nothing. Any time Maria spoke, it impacted on his consciousness like hailstones, icy and startling. It was like the Master Emerald itself was speaking. He longed to speak to her, ask her questions, plumb the depths of the strange secrets she carried. More and more, he wanted to throw himself at her feet in worship. But no, she was just a sickly human girl.  
This disconnect between her humanity and her power tugged at him, unsettling him and sending shivers across his shoulders. What had they gotten themselves into?


	3. Chapter 3

That night Tails tossed and turned in his bed. The blankets were too hot, the air too cold. He kicked them off, then pulled them back on. His mind itched. It felt like he had forgotten to do something, or had wired an invention incorrectly.  
"Stupid Angel Island," he said to the ceiling. "I can't fix you now, okay?" The statue in the jungle had made him the island's mechanic. But the sheer vastness of its ruined systems baffled him. It would take years and millions of dollars worth of parts to repair it all. Yet he wanted to try.  
Except Eggman had bought the island out from under them. Stolen it, more like. Now Tails was left with the feeling of neglected responsibility.  
Slowly he dozed, his eyelids flickering shut. It seemed that he was standing in the control room at Angel Island, facing the wall of black screens. The floor had been peeled open like the skin from an orange, revealing layers of rusty conduit. Blue sparks flashed here and there.  
"I can't," Tails told it. "I don't have the schematics."  
He turned and was standing in a chamber he had never seen before. It was dark and his footsteps echoed as if he stood in some cavernous space. A light gleamed in the distance, far overhead. "What is this place?"  
Light flowed down the walls from the spot overhead. The walls were etched with circuitry in spidery copper lines: resistors, diodes, inductors, and transistors clustered in orderly groups everywhere he looked. He stood inside a vast electronic system and watched the power flow through it. A sense of peace filled him. It was running. This was how it was supposed to be.  
A capacitor sparked and began to smoke. Tails ran to it, fumbling in the pockets of his tool belt. They were filled with parts. "Hold on, I've got this!"  
But as he pried the capacitor loose, an inductor blew five feet to his right. Then a diode sparked thirty feet up the wall.  
Tails dashed here and there, spinning his tails and hovering, frantically fixing each problem. But everything was breaking down. There was too much for one fox to handle. Frustration welled up inside him, even as he coughed on the stench of melting silicon. "Hold on! I can't keep up! Stop! Please!"  
The vast electronic chamber began to fall dark, the blue power draining away. "No!" Tails cried. "I've got this!"  
He awoke scrabbling at the wall beside his bed, feeling for a capacitor that wasn't there. He sank back on his pillow with a groan. He was having metaphor dreams now. But had it really been a metaphor?  
The tall, echoing space. The power flowing through the walls. It had felt like a real place on Angel Island, but one he had never seen.  
"We've gotta go back," he whispered into the darkness.

* * *

Eggman knelt before a stone door, tapping it with a tiny hammer. The hammer was connected by a wire to a device with a lot of needles and dials. The needles waved with each tap.  
A gold plate shone in the middle of the door. It had a faint handprint etched on it. The trouble was that it didn't respond to Eggman's touch. "I'm going to reprogram this door if it takes all night," he growled.  
It was humiliating to realize that only the island's crew could open these doors. Gold plates barred his way throughout the island's complex. He should have taken one of the rodents hostage and made them open doors for him.  
Metal Sonic's stripped data rolled around in his head. A statue in the jungle had empowered them all, somehow. It had enacted some kind of brainwashing on them, forcing them to come to this island and be its slaves. So convenient. The Ancients had such magnificent technology.  
Metal Sonic had been enslaved, too. Wait. There was an idea. Eggman touched his headset. "Metal Sonic, come to the east hallway, please."  
After a few minutes, the robot's glowing red eyes appeared in the distance. He paced to his master and stood there, gazing straight ahead. No personality.  
After the echidna had punched the robot in the face, Eggman had been forced to replace eighty percent of Metal Sonic's hardware. Practically the only thing that survived were the Ancient circuits and memory sticks. Metal Sonic had been rolled back to his most basic programming-he had lost Lyric's upgrades, the Speaker's data, all shattered with the silicon that contained it. He was once more an obedient robot-none of those troublesome problems about questioning orders or serving two masters.  
It also may have eliminated him from slavery to the island, meaning he could no longer open doors. It was worth a try.  
"Touch that plate," Eggman said.  
Metal Sonic examined the plate, noticed the handprint, and pressed his metal palm to the plate, his sharp-tipped fingers spread.  
The door rumbled and slid open with a grinding noise.  
"Well well." Eggman gazed at the robot with new respect. The statue's programming remained intact, somehow, despite the new hardware. Maybe some data lingered in the Ancient processors. If that was true, then Metal Sonic was now incredibly valuable.  
Eggman gestured at the dark space beyond the open door. "See what's inside."  
Metal Sonic stepped into the darkness. His footsteps shuffled for a moment, then halted. One of the crystal lights flared to life, illuminating a cavernous room. It was the first light that Eggman had seen turn on since he had taken the island. Gloating, he stepped inside.  
The room was the size of a garage with a grating in the floor leading to depths unknown. Three car-sized shapes occupied most of the floor space. Each object was swaddled in ancient tarpaulins, secured with ropes cracked and frayed with age.  
Eggman summoned a swarm of robots to unwrap the objects. Beetles and wasps scuttled into the room on metal legs and began cutting ropes. The tarpaulins fell to pieces as they dragged them away, filling the room with a cloud of white dust. Eggman retreated to the hall outside, strapping a dust mask over his nose and mouth. There was no telling how caustic the dust might be.  
When it settled a bit, he peered inside. His robots had uncovered three huge Ancient machines. Robots. He hurried to them like a child to a Christmas present.  
They were dragon-like things, with four legs, a short neck, and a square head with a powerful jaw. The teeth were simply jagged serrations in the jaw's metal, like a can opener. Each creature was a burnished bronze color. They lay on the ground, legs folded, heads resting on the floors, metal shutters closed over each eye.  
Eggman ran his hands over the nearest one's face, across its neck, and up its shoulder. "Look at you, you beautiful monster! How would you like to work for me? You'd get dental." He tapped the device on his wrist. Stolen from Lyric, it rerouted control of all nearby creatures to the user. Lyric had used it to seize Eggman's robots. Now Eggman used it to seize every functional Ancient device he encountered.  
This time, however, nothing happened. The three dragons remained inert. Eggman grunted. "Probably filled with corrosion. Metal Sonic, scan this one. Tell me the damage."  
The blue robot, comically small beside the car-sized dragon, began to pace a slow circle around it. Data began to flood Eggman's tablet computer. The beast's inner workings looked surprisingly clean. A few parts were rusted from age, but that was to be expected. The coverings must have preserved them from the destructive combination of moisture and oxygen.  
On the dragon's far side, Metal Sonic halted, his scans focusing on a small gold plate on the dragon's side. Without waiting for orders, he touched it.  
The shutters on the dragon's eyes slid aside, revealing a pair of sky blue lenses as powerful as a sniper's scope. The machinery in its body whirred to life, an engine throbbing in its belly. Eggman checked the scans. It had a hydrogen-fuel engine, one of the small ones the Ancients favored for powering vehicles.  
The dragon slowly rose to all fours, its legs clicking and grinding as the long-disused gears gnawed through fossilized lubricant. It towered above them, the lenses in its eyes growing and shrinking as it focused on Eggman and Metal Sonic.  
"You!" Eggman said, pointing at it. "Turn a circle!"  
The dragon didn't move.  
Metal Sonic pointed at it and made the same gesture.  
The dragon ponderously turned in a circle, moving one foot at a time, its thick counterbalance of a tail narrowly missing them.  
Eggman glared at Metal Sonic. "Fine. You can control Island machines and I can't. No need to gloat about it."  
Metal Sonic just stood there.  
Eggman pointed at the other two. "What are you waiting for? Wake them up!"  
Metal Sonic moved to obey. The active dragon turned its head to watch him like a loyal dog watching its master.  
Interesting. Perhaps Metal Sonic would function best as a sort of lieutenant of Eggman's forces. Wouldn't the pests be shocked to see their former friend coming after them with three dragons at his heels?  
Perhaps Eggman could send them to recapture that chaos girl. Yes. She was some kind of experiment and he wanted to study her. If anyone could unlock the secrets of this island, she could.

* * *

Before the sun rose the next morning, Amy slipped out of her cottage, closing the door softly behind her. The pink hedgehog was dressed in a red jogging suit and wore a pedometer on her wrist.  
She breathed deeply of the fresh morning air as she walked down to the beach. As she made her way through the dunes to the hard sand near the water, Sonic jogged up, wearing a black windbreaker. "Ready to go?"  
"Ready when you are."  
They fell into step, jogging down the beach together. This was their morning routine, albeit interrupted by their stint on Angel Island. Sonic paced himself for her, matching strides.  
"So," he said, "Shadow didn't, like, attack you last night, did he?"  
"Of course not," Amy replied, rolling her eyes. "He and Maria were perfect guests. They were still asleep when I left. Here, look." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and showed Sonic the screen. It was a photo of Maria asleep on Amy's sofa. Shadow was curled up on the floor beside it, and Maria's hand rested on his head.  
"D'aww," Sonic said with an exaggerated grin. "Save that picture for blackmail purposes."  
"Come on, don't be mean," Amy told him. "Shadow's as crippled as Maria. But on the inside."  
Sonic snorted. "Is that what makes him such a jerk?"  
"Think about it. He's waited for Maria for longer than we've been alive. Now she's back, he has no idea how to function. He's so lost."  
Sonic didn't reply. They jogged in silence for a while. Gulls wheeled overhead. Flocks of sandpipers ran out of their way, their legs twinkling.  
"It's just that," Sonic began, then hesitated. "It's just that Shadow is powerful. And he has these mood swings. If he decided that you were the enemy, Aimes, you'd be maimed before you saw him coming."  
"I had thought of that," Amy said gently. "I made him promise to behave himself as long as he's under my roof. He agreed, and so did Maria."  
"Yeah, Maria," Sonic said. "What're we gonna do about her? She's not very strong yet, but she's scary powerful. I think we're going to find out that she's scarier than Shads."  
"We'll look after her, of course," Amy replied. "If she is scary powerful, as you put it, then we want her on our side."  
"Which side is our side? Angel Island's? Bygone's? The whole archipelago?"  
"Not Eggman's," Amy said. "And not NME's."  
Sonic snorted. "That makes it easy."  
Amy looked at him. "You're in a bad mood. What's wrong?"  
"Oh-" Sonic detoured to kick a rock into the ocean. "This jacket is irritating my bandages. And Angel Island keeps pulling at me. I want to go back."  
Any didn't say anything. Her dreams had been plagued with the island, its long, dusty corridors. In one dream she had redecorated the main hall and it was filled with color and light. She awoke feeling frustrated.  
Sonic looked at her sideways. "You feel it, too."  
"I try not to," she blurted. "I don't like how it's put this compulsion on us, Sonic. We don't know why the island was abandoned. If it compels its crew to live there, why are we the first in eight generations? Where did the others go, Sonic?"  
Sonic frowned. "I don't know, Aimes. I keep hoping that if we fix the island, we'll find this stuff out."  
"So basically," Amy said, ears angling backward, "we have to risk having our brains melted to find out if it will melt our brains."  
Sonic grinned. "Been hanging around Sticks much?"  
"Maybe."  
"Hey, what's she think of all this? She's our fortune teller. She might know how to get the island back."  
Amy sighed. "She's terrified of Maria. She thinks she's going to bring down the apocalypse."  
Sonic gave a brief, troubled grin. "Well. That's disturbing. Seeing as how Sticks has been right about literally everything else."  
Amy nodded. She and Sonic reached the cliffs that marked the end of the beach and turned around to jog back. Jogging toward them in the distance was Knuckles, dreadlocks flying in the wind.  
Sonic groaned under his breath.  
"Hey, be nice," Amy snapped.  
"I'm sick of the Guardian stuff. He needs to go back to being the village idiot and let us intelligent people handle things."  
"Sonic! That's terrible! Shush, he'll hear you."  
Knuckles met them, turned and fell into step beside them. "Hey guys! Great morning for a jog."  
"Yep," Sonic said through tight lips.  
"It sure is!" Amy gushed to cover up Sonic's attitude. "How're you?"  
Knuckles grunted. "Not great. Worried. How were Maria and Shadow?"  
Amy repeated the report she had given Sonic and showed Knuckles the picture on her phone. He looked at it without comment.  
They jogged on in silence. Hostility bristled in Sonic's every quill. Knuckles didn't seem to notice. After a while, Sonic said, "So, when do we get our lives back?"  
Knuckles gave him a blank look. "What?"  
"You know. When do we forget about the island and go back to being normal?"  
Knuckles scowled. "It doesn't work like that. We're island crew now."  
Sonic halted. Amy and Knuckles did, too. This was building to a scrap, and Amy backed away. When these two had a falling out, it was better to let them have the fight and be done.  
"What if I don't want to be island crew anymore?" Sonic said.  
Knuckles held up both hands. "You mean you're just giving our island to Eggman?"  
Sonic jabbed Knuckles's chest with a finger. "Your island, Guardian. Not mine."  
"Your island, Sonic." Knuckles clenched his fists now. "You had to go look at the Speaker. I tried to warn you."  
"So some statue in the jungle put stuff in my head," Sonic exclaimed. "Big whoop. I quit. Screw Angel Island."  
A pang of betrayal strung Amy's heart at those words. How could Sonic say that? Was he serious or just goading Knuckles?  
Either way, it worked. Knuckles stared at Sonic, his jaw slack. Sonic stared back, but a slight tilt to his ears gave away the tiniest indication of guilt.  
"So," Knuckles said, clamping his teeth together and speaking through them. "This is the end, then."  
Sonic grinned-a nasty, hurtful grin with pain inside it. "You bet it is. See you around."  
Amy expected Knuckles to swing at Sonic. In fact, she wished he would, so they would get it over with. Instead, Knuckles turned on his heel and walked away, across the dunes, back toward town. He moved in a stiff, jerky way, as if expecting attack from the back.  
Sonic watched him go, eyes narrowed, a muscle working in his jaw. When Amy said his name, he jumped and jerked around as if he had forgotten she existed.  
"Seriously?" she snapped.  
"Amy," Sonic said, ears flattening, "look, we're not getting the island back any time soon. And you're right-it might be melting our brains. I say we go back to the Speaker and formally resign."  
"You couldn't explain that to Knuckles? You might as well have spit in his face!"  
Sonic ran a hand over his blue spines, smoothing them down, a nervous gesture. Then he turned and gazed eastward, although the jungle of Bygone hid Angel Island from sight. "He wouldn't have listened, anyway."  
They jogged back up the beach in silence. Amy couldn't decide if she was more upset about the fight or Sonic's brazen rejection of the island. This troubled her. She disliked the island's compulsion and its effects on their minds. But this division of their team was somehow far more horrible. It was as if an earthquake had splintered away part of a continent, leaving it to sink into the sea.  
 _What will we do without the Guardian?_  
Sonic kept looking toward the eastern jungle, as if plagued by guilty thoughts. Then he swerved and ran up the beach to the crest of a dune. "Uh, Amy, come look at this."  
Amy followed him and stood atop the dune, panting. Sonic pointed.  
Something big was moving through the jungle. Trees swayed, brush rustled, and something enormous and metal appeared and disappeared behind the leaves. There was the faint growl of an engine.  
"Eggman sent a really big robot this time," Amy observed.  
"I'll bet it's after Maria," Sonic muttered. "Come on!"  
He took off running up the beach, leaving Amy behind. Before she could take a step to follow him, the huge thing in the trees leaped out onto the sand. It moved like a cat, its limbs bent, head low, eyes focused on Sonic. Amy squinted. It didn't look like Eggman's usual robots-more like something Ancient he had dug up.  
Sonic saw the monster and yelped. He wheeled around to face it just as it pounced.  
Sonic's speed saved him from instant, messy death in the robot's serrated jaws. He spin dashed between its forelegs, under its belly, and back toward Amy. "For crying out loud, do something!"  
Amy held out both empty hands. "I didn't bring my hammer!"  
"Well, go get it! And bring the others! I can't fight this thing alone!"  
Amy ducked around the robot and ran for Bygone Village. Her heart hurt. Knuckles wouldn't help with this fight, even though they needed him.  
The screech of a jet engine reached her ears. Metal Sonic. Amy gasped, seeing the plan instantly. The robot dragon-thing was a distraction. Metal Sonic was headed to the village, probably to kidnap Maria.  
"Shadow will protect her," Amy panted to reassure herself. "Shadow won't let him take her. Come on, Shadow!"  
She rounded a bend in the road and dashed into the block where they all lived. Her door stood open. Crashes and thumps echoed from inside. She ran to the door and glimpsed the struggle.  
Knuckles and Shadow were fighting Metal Sonic in sort of a desperate mixed martial arts competition. The robot leaped here and there, slashing with his claws, kicking, punching, dodging blows, trying to get to Maria, who cowered behind Shadow. Knuckles and Shadow fought with punches and, in Shadow's case, graceful flowing moves and spinning kicks.  
All this happened within two seconds. Then Knuckles yelled, "Get her out!"  
Shadow grabbed Maria's hand. "Chaos-"  
Metal Sonic charged headfirst into Knuckles, toppling both of them into Shadow.  
"Chaos control!" Maria shrieked.  
A blast of power struck Amy in the chest, making her stagger backwards and cough. When she returned to the door, Knuckles, Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Maria had all vanished.  
Amy said something unladylike and dove into her living room, which looked as if vandals had spent the night redecorating. Her hammer still hung on its hook behind the door, thank goodness. She snatched it up and dashed outside, yelling for Tails and Sticks.  
 _Please let them have teleported into the jungle_. Likely the fight had continued back in the trees somewhere. Surely Shadow and Knuckles could beat off Metal Sonic.  
But Maria had used chaos control, not Shadow. Would she know any of Shadow's jungle hiding places? Or would she take them somewhere else?  
The uncanny connection that linked Amy with the island had felt the destination in the backwash of the teleport.  
"They've gone deep," Amy whispered. "They've gone deep."


	4. Chapter 4

Knuckles barely knew what had happened at first. Every neuron in his brain screamed that he must protect the Master Emerald at all costs. When Metal Sonic charged, Knuckles shielded Shadow and Maria with his burly body, catching the robot's full weight on his breastbone.  
Chaos power washed through him, around him, an unstoppable tide that carried him through space wherever it desired. It was dizzying, electrifying, yet painless.  
The lights went out. Knuckles sprawled on his back, coughing and struggling to roll over and get up. Metal Sonic withdrew, red eyes burning like embers in the dimness. Knuckles's coughing awoke echoes in the space around them.  
As he pushed himself up, he realized that the floor beneath him was reinforced metal screen. Through it was a terrifying drop several stories into some kind of water wheel churning in a distant river.  
Knuckles launched himself to his feet and found a rusty hand railing nearby to cling to.  
Maria sat on the flooring, gazing around and breathing hard. Shadow stood over her, trying to look in all directions at once, teeth bared, as if expecting further attack.  
Metal Sonic stood several feet away, head turning this way and that in confusion.  
They were on an industrial catwalk through vast, chilly space. A few dim green lights burned along the distant walls, and two were near enough to illuminate their landing place. A river flowed endlessly below them, dampening the air and rusting their catwalk. Knuckles tried to grasp it. It was a cave full of machinery. Or ... a factory? Or somewhere on Angel Island? His mind groped for an explanation as fear rose within him like a cobra.  
"What is this place?" Knuckles whispered. His voice reverberated off the walls, filling the silence with hissing.  
"It looks like ..." Shadow trailed off and moistened his lips. "Like the old complex."  
Maria nodded. "I panicked and that was the first thing I thought of. I wanted to go home." She struggled to her feet and leaned on Shadow's shoulder.  
Knuckles met the black hedgehog's eyes and saw fear there. It sent a creepy shiver through him. Shadow had been many things through the years, but fearful wasn't one of them.  
His own voice raspy with dread, Knuckles said, "This place is bad, isn't it?"  
Shadow nodded, his black spines rustling. "It was sealed and abandoned shortly after Maria entered suspension."  
Maria frowned at her brother. "Sealed? Why?"  
Shadow glanced right and left, then upward. He pointed.  
Another catwalk crossed the space ten feet overhead, moss hanging from its supports. Through the mesh flooring they could see a dark thing sitting there, gazing down at them. It was the size of one of Knuckles's fists and had one red eye that glinted in the light as it studied them.  
The only one of them who moved was Metal Sonic. He backed away several steps, drawing his elbows against his sides, as if preparing to flee.  
Maria noticed him and pointed. "You."  
The robot halted.  
Maria bent her finger. Metal Sonic inched toward her, sending watchful glances toward the creature above them.  
Knuckles and Shadow exchanged an agonized look. They had been trying to protect Maria from the robot a few minutes ago. Now he was obeying her? Should they protect her from him?  
As if sensing their thoughts, Maria said, "As I tried to tell you back in the village, he's no threat to me."  
"No threat?" Shadow exclaimed. "He was attacking you! Aren't you worried about the wisp?"  
Maria extended a hand to Metal Sonic as the robot approached. "The wisp is concerning, yes. But this one ..." She trailed off, staring into the robot's glowing red eyes.  
A pulse of Master Emerald energy rolled off her. It blew Knuckles's dreadlocks back from his face and made him wince. It was like standing beside a cannon as it fired-the concussive force without the sound. Shadow grunted and swayed backward.  
Metal Sonic remained frozen, one hand outstretched, gazing at Maria. He was like an animated statue-a semblance of life layered into dead, cold metal.  
The girl faced him, thin, frail, but with blue eyes that glowed with energy like living light.  
She took the metal hand with its razor sharp fingers. Life touched unlife.  
The blue robot clasped her hand, gazing at her as Shadow had done in the hospital. Then he bowed his head suddenly, shielding his eyes with his other hand.  
"No," Maria said, catching that hand and forcing it away. "Look at me."

* * *

Metal Sonic didn't want to look into those blazing, living eyes anymore. They burned him, overloading his sensors, his chips, his memory. They brought with them the unpleasant ghost of a memory of a blow to the face, the crash of glass, the crumpling of metal, the shattering of delicate components. It was brutal, devastating, and he didn't want to remember it.  
Still he held her hand. Even when she forced him to meet her eyes, he held her hand. Power flowed from her into him, topping off his battery's charge. It was like touching the Master Emerald, but gentler.  
 _You are Island Crew_ , she whispered in his internal processor.  
 _I am Metal Sonic_ , he retorted. _I serve Dr. Eggman._  
 _You are Metal Sonic_ , she agreed slowly, as if pondering the words. _You see without being seen. You hear without being heard. You are ... Ghost._  
The title shot through his new hardware and into the Ancient chipset that formed the core of his being. A million calculations happened within nanoseconds.  
 _I am Metal Sonic, yet I am Ghost._  
Memories should have been there. He reached for them, searched his database, but they were gone.  
 _I am empty, Great One._  
Maria's voice whispered again, "All will be restored in time. For now, let me open once more what has been sealed."  
One of his proxies unsealed itself. Metal Sonic sent out a curious ping.  
Nearby, Knuckles turned his head.  
"Hello, Knuckles," Metal Sonic said to the echidna's mind.

* * *

Knuckles had been watching the wisp. It was like a squid-a round head and three tentacles underneath. Had it come out of the river down below? What were wisps, anyway, and why did they make everyone so nervous?  
Various scary movies provided easy answers to that question. Knuckles didn't like to take his eyes off it. But he did when Metal Sonic's odd text-to-speech voice spoke inside his head.  
"Hey," Knuckles said aloud. "I didn't think you could do that anymore."  
Metal Sonic slowly released Maria's hand. _The Great One has touched me. She calls me Ghost._  
Shadow looked back and forth between them all. "So now the robot can talk to the echidna the way you talk to me. Wonderful. Can we leave now?"  
"Yes," Maria said. Leaning on Shadow, she hobbled up the catwalk, toward the indefinite darkness on the other side of the cave. Knuckles followed close behind in case she stumbled. Metal Sonic brought up the rear, casting glances over his shoulder at the wisp.  
The catwalk ended at a dark corridor in the rock. As they stepped into it, shuffling in the dust, Metal Sonic told Knuckles, _It follows._  
Knuckles looked back. The tentacled wisp was crawling through the railings. It dropped to their catwalk, where it floated a couple of inches above the metal. It drifted after them, completely, eerily silent.  
"So, guys," Knuckles said, "are these wisps bad or what?"  
"No," Maria said.  
"Yes," Shadow said at the same time. They exchanged a troubled look.  
Knuckles gestured to the dark hallway. "How can we get away, then? I didn't pack a flashlight."  
 _Allow me_. Metal Sonic stepped forward and switched the red filter off his eyes. Now they burned clear LED white, casting a beam of light like headlights. He beckoned and stepped into the hall. The others hurried after him, shooting backwards glances at the tiny creature trailing them.

* * *

Sonic sprawled on his sofa, eyes closed, breathing heavily. His blue spines were mussed and the athletic tape on his legs hung in tatters. The bandage across his chest was spotted with red.  
Tails lay at the other end of the couch, sprawled in a similar attitude, but with a wrench in one hand. He raised it feebly, then dropped it on the floor.  
Sticks lay sideways in an armchair across the room, staring at the ceiling with a traumatized expression. When Amy entered with frosty glasses of fruit juice, Sticks said, "It's aliens."  
"No, Sticks," Sonic said without opening his eyes. "It was Eggman."  
"It was a giant robot dragon!" Sticks exclaimed, the brown stripes around her eyes making her look even more frantic. "Eggman doesn't do dragons!"  
Amy passed out juice to everyone. Sonic took his and held the cold glass against the wound on his chest.  
Amy frowned at it. "The burn is bleeding now?"  
"I moved too much," Sonic said, lifting his head. The pain-shadows beneath his eyes had returned. "Why did the dragon quit fighting? We didn't defeat it."  
"It powered down," Tails said, brightening a little. "One minute it was about to kill Sonic, and the next it just lay down and turned itself off. So weird."  
"It was not about to kill me," Sonic retorted. "I could have gotten away."  
"It had you pinned under a foot, Sonic," Amy said. "It didn't care about the rest of us-it was going to bite you in half."  
Sonic sipped his juice, then let his head fall back against the sofa's arm again. "So what happened to Shadow and Maria?"  
"They used chaos control," Amy said. She stood still and stared at nothing, remembering the blast of energy. "Knuckles and Metal Sonic went with them by accident. They went deep."  
"You keep saying that," Sticks said, sitting up and staring at Amy. "What does that mean?"  
"I ... don't know." Amy gazed around at them. "Wherever they went, it was far away. And ... deep, somehow. I don't know how to explain it."  
Sonic lifted his head, his eyes bright green. "Knux went with them. Did they go to Angel Island?"  
Amy slowly shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. I only sort of felt it when they left. I know they're not in the jungle."  
Sticks jumped out of the chair. "I knew it! The aliens got them. The next time we see them, they'll be infested."  
"Hey, Sticks," Sonic said, "you're our seer. Can you see where they went?"  
Sticks's eyes unfocused. She stared past them for a moment. "Metal Sonic has returned to his master."  
"That means Angel Island," Tails said. "Knuckles, Shadow, Maria, and Metal Sonic are all there now."  
Sonic groaned and sank back on the sofa. "Think they'll need a rescue?"  
"If they're not back by tonight, yes," Amy said. "Can you imagine what Eggman might do to Maria? A human-Mobian experiment who uses chaos control?"  
They all shuddered.  
"I can fly over there in the Tornado," Tails offered. "Scout around, see what Eggman's up to."  
"Good idea," Sonic said. "He may not have noticed them yet, especially if Knux pulverized Metal Sonic again." He grinned a little. "I'd pay money to see Shadow face off with Eggman."

* * *

"Signal lost, sir," Orbot said. "Looks like Metal Sonic's hardware is off."  
Eggman sat in the control room of Angel Island. The corners of the room were stacked with boxes of parts. The wall of monitors had been repaired and now showed views of eight different areas on Angel Island. Robots were busy in every screen, repairing and replacing the island's machinery.  
Eggman himself had set up a table to one side, where he was rebuilding one of the hydrogen engines from a robot dragon. A grease-smeared blueprint was pinned to the wall behind it, which he paused often to study. Now he straightened with a frown. "Signal lost? Did that brute of an echidna smash him again?"  
"No idea," Orbot replied. "Look at the log."  
A video played that showed Metal Sonic's view as he struggled to reach Maria. Then there was a flash of light and the signal cut out.  
"I swear," Eggman said, "if I have to rebuild him again, it'll be the last time."  
Cubot was working at a different spot, watching a different screen. "That's weird, because the dragon he was controlling didn't shut down until fifteen minutes later." He showed spy-drone footage of Sonic, Tails, Amy and Sticks battling the dragon. "It was winning, too."  
Eggman watched the battle several times, relishing the sight of Sonic being beaten down. Finally he waved to Cubot to shut it off. "Orbot, play Metal Sonic's footage again."  
Eggman watched it several times in slow motion, playing it frame by frame. The robot had blasted through the village like a bullet, straight to Amy's hut. His tracking sensors indicated a tremendous concentration of chaos energy there. He burst in upon Shadow and the girl. Shadow sprang up to protect the girl, who sat there, watching with a look of serene unconcern.  
"Look at her," Eggman said, pausing the video and staring at her. "She's not afraid at all. Who is she?"  
Orbot and Cubot exchanged shrugs. "A famous pop singer from your childhood?"  
"This is why I don't expect an actual answer from either of you." Eggman screen capped the image, then fed it into the remote database in his fortress. "I've got to know why she was plugged into the Master Emerald. That chamber of hers had a direct optical feed into the base of the Emerald."  
"She must have been an experiment," Orbot offered.  
Eggman steepled his fingers and tapped them against his lips. "Yes. But what kind?"  
He sat back in his chair for a long moment, gazing at the screens without seeing them. Suddenly he straightened and bashed a fist into the arm rest. "Blast it all, I need Metal Sonic back!" He resumed studying the recorded footage, especially the flash of light at the end.  
"The girl did something," Eggman decided, pointing at her blurry figure in the last frame. "She worked a teleport like she did on that dratted shark. Metal Sonic's not offline - he's out of range. That's why it took the dragon so long to shut down."  
"Out of range?" Cubot said. "I thought he had full island coverage."  
"Coverage is patchy in the Bygone interior," Eggman admitted grudgingly. "They probably took him out in the jungle to reprogram him again. Orbot! Send a search command to my stealth wasps. Tell them to comb Bygone's jungle until they find Metal Sonic. And that girl." Under his breath, he muttered, "And if you try to stop me, Shadow, I'll treat you the same way Lyric did."

* * *

Shadow combed his fingers through his red and black spines, trying to smooth away the sweat that beaded against his skin. He couldn't allow the wisps to smell how afraid he was.  
They walked down a dark stone hallway, Metal Sonic leading, his eyes shining like headlights. They illuminated junk on the floor. Fallen ceiling lights with glass scattered across the floor. Broken chairs. Shattered floor tiles. Maria stepped around them carefully, keeping one hand always on Shadow's shoulder. The symbiosis that connected them was restoring her every second she remained in contact with him. Already her steps were more sure, her breathing easier. Her grip on his shoulder was a little stronger.  
In return, her chaos power flowed into him like the constant warmth of the sun. It made his red chaos-stripes glow a dull maroon in the darkness.  
The burly, dim-witted echidna spoke from Maria's other side, where he often steadied her. "Should we be worried about what trashed this place?"  
"Yes," Maria said. "It was fine when I last saw it. What happened, Shadow?"  
He had dreaded answering that question. The answer had been sealed in his head for fifty years-bricked away, never remembered, buried like the nightmare it was.  
"The wisps," he whispered.  
Maria turned her softly-glowing blue eyes on him. "The wisps did this? Honestly?"  
Shadow shook his head. The wall in his head weakened, a few bricks shaking loose. From the space behind, he heard again the screams, the roars, the crashing of endless water.  
"It was the reaction. They started it."  
"Reaction?" Knuckles said. "What, was there a reactor down here that blew up?"  
Shadow couldn't answer. Speaking the words might bring it to pass again. Terror froze his tongue. He was in these halls again-the halls where it had happened. The water marks still stained the walls, but nobody had noticed them yet. The debris had settled in drifts where the water had deposited it, but nobody noticed that, either. One hand crept to the emerald-shaped patch of white fur on his chest. That was where-  
"This way," Maria said, halting. She pointed up a staircase. "This was where I lived."  
Shadow shook his head violently and refused to move.  
Inside his head, Maria's sweet, calm voice said, "Shadow, dear, why are you so afraid?"  
He gazed into the blue eyes he loved so much, and words failed him. There was no describing the horrors he had witnessed, the things he had fled, the screams of the injured people he had rescued and how they begged for death afterward.  
Maria nudged his shoulder with her palm. "There's nothing here any longer, dear. Let's pay my old quarters a visit."  
Metal Sonic started up the stairs, testing each step before he applied his full weight. Knuckles took Maria's other hand. "Come on, Shadow, we'll both help her."  
As they began the climb, Shadow received a new shock that jarred him out of his terrified stupor. The flow of energy between him and Maria had a secondary swirl in it. Was she drawing energy from Knuckles, too?  
He looked around Maria at the echidna. Knuckles gave no indication that he sensed anything. He watched Maria's feet and helped boost her up each step. How could this echidna have any connection with Maria? He had no idea she existed until a week ago. Shadow had watched him - the echidna was slow and ignorant and good at smashing things. That was all. He should have no link to Maria.  
When they reached the top of the stairs, Shadow snarled, "Get away from her."  
Knuckles blinked at him. "Why? She needs help."  
Maria's grip on Shadow's shoulder tightened. In his mind, she whispered, "Shadow, dear, don't."  
But the terror that had been eating at Shadow had combined with jealousy to form an explosive mixture. He stepped toward Knuckles, spines bristling, red stripes glowing crimson. "Nobody gives her power but me. Take your filthy energy somewhere else."  
Knuckles released Maria's elbow, but stood his ground. His eyes narrowed. "You think I'm giving her energy?"  
"I can feel it, cretin." Shadow's hands doubled into fists. The destructive chaos power rose inside him, flickering like lightning. "You have no ties to her. Don't touch her again."  
Knuckles looked at Maria. "Am I hurting you somehow? Is that why he's mad?"  
"You have a link with the Master Emerald," Maria replied. "Therefore a link to me." She touched the red stripe on Shadow's head. Red lightning crackled around her fingertips as his power grounded into her. The rage oozed out of Shadow, leaving him tired and ashamed. Maria drew a sharp breath, as if it hurt, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, red lightning danced across her blue irises. Then it vanished and she sighed. "Shadow, dear, don't do that again." Telepathically, she added, _The fear is consuming you. Why are you so afraid?_  
He gazed at her. "If we stay here, you'll find out."  
"Yeah," Knuckles added. "When can we go home? Can't you guys just chaos control out of here?"  
"Not yet," Maria murmured, gazing at the walls and ceiling. "There is something I must do. I'm just uncertain what it is."  
"Well, that wisp is still following us," Knuckles said. "Just so you know." He pointed back down the dark stairwell. A third of the way up, the wisp's single eye reflected the light like a cat's.  
A shudder clawed through Shadow's body. The urge to run stirred his feet.  
Maria extended a hand toward it. "They're harmless. Come along, little fellow."  
Shadow shrank back a step, hating himself. He should slap her hand down, shield her, protect her from the creature. Instead, he cowered behind her, mutely begging her to save him. He clutched the white spot on his chest.  
The one-eyed wisp with the three tentacles floated up to them and bounced up to hover above Maria's hand. Knuckles and Metal Sonic approached to study it. In the increased light from the robot's eyes, the wisp appeared light blue. Its red eye blinked at them innocently. If it had a mouth, it was closed seamlessly.  
"Are these things experiments or something?" Knuckles asked.  
Maria smiled at the wisp. "They are a rare form of life discovered by my grandfather. He believed them to be extra-terrestrial in origin. He collected as many as he could and brought them here for study." To the wisp, she added, "How is your mother, little one?"  
The wisp made a series of trills and clicks, like a dolphin. Shadow stood stock still, like a mouse watching an advancing cat.  
Maria nodded as if she understood every word. "I'm pleased to hear that. I must attend to a few things down here. You may accompany us."  
The wisp made a cheerful sound and turned a backflip in midair. It flew off Maria's hand and floated a few feet to their right.  
Sensing Shadow's apprehension, Maria whispered in his mind, _It's all right, dear. He said his mother has been asleep for many years._  
He caught her hand and pressed it. "Thanks," he whispered. That was one worry down, among a host of others.


	5. Chapter 5

Tails flew his yellow biplane over Bygone Island at five thousand feet, headed east, toward Angel Island. The jungle spread out below him like a blanket of deep blue-green, shot here and there with the glimmer of water. The ocean ringed the horizon with deep blue. His flight helmet and goggles shielded him from the wind, but the noise of his engine and the wind drowned out all other sound.  
Fortunately, he wore a headset and mic that connected him to his friends back home. He adjusted the mic at its place against his cheek, and sighed happily. Not only was he flying-his favorite state of being-he was headed to Angel Island.  
The dream of the tall electronic space haunted him. Was it his own subconscious dramatizing his longing for the island? Or was it actually a real place? He had to find out. Maybe he could find a place to land, spend some time snooping around on foot. If only he could touch the island again ...  
Angel Island came into view, blue with distance. His heart leaped. Eggman hadn't burned it, or clear-cut the jungles, or anything. Probably he was too busy with the underground complex. The island's central mountain peak beckoned to him like a promise of home.  
As he drew closer, Tails activated the Tornado's radar. A screen in his control panel lit up with a series of pulsing lines. No flying targets detected yet. He kept an eye on it as he left Bygone Island and crossed the bay toward Angel Island. If Metal Sonic had returned to his master, then he might come flying out to attack Tails at any moment.  
Radar picked up several flying targets. They flew low, just above tree level, patrolling. Eggman's robots. Tails maintained course. If they tried to attack him, the Tornado had all kinds of air-to-air defenses he was dying to use.  
He flew over Angel Island without the robots noticing. Eggman might have picked him up by now, but hopefully he assumed Tails was a random charter plane out for a joy ride. And technically that's all he was. Just one little biplane out for a jaunt across Angel Island, trying to spot a couple of friends.  
If Shadow, Maria and Knuckles were underground, he'd never know. But if one of them made it outside - and maybe tried to signal him - Tails hoped he would see. He descended to two thousand feet, keeping an eye on the terrain. Flying on instruments was fine until a mountain appeared in front of you that was quite a bit taller than two thousand feet. Fortunately, it was a clear day, with no troublesome clouds to block his view.  
Where might Knuckles go if set loose on the island again? He'd probably head for the Master Emerald, honestly. Tails would never see him from out here.  
The urge crept through him again to land, to explore, to again touch the island he loved. He was supposed to look for his friends. It wouldn't hurt to actually look for them, would it? Sneak inside, outsmart Eggman's robots ...  
At the southern end of the island was a dry, barren spot that resembled an old airstrip. Tails circled it twice, studying it. It looked like Eggman's robots had recently cleared it. Probably Eggman had his own craft to land.  
Sonic's voice crackled in his headset. "Checking in, little bro. How's the island looking?"  
"About the same, except for the robots," Tails replied.  
"Any sign of Knux?"  
"Not from the air. I'm going to land and sneak inside."  
"What!" Sonic squawked. "That wasn't your mission, Tails!"  
"Can't hear you!" Tails replied, throttling back as he swooped down upon the airstrip. The ground was rough, freshly plowed. His plane bounced so badly upon touchdown that Tails had to fight to keep the machine from flipping over on its nose. Finally he taxied to a halt in an immense cloud of dust. Laughing, he killed the engine. "Made it!"  
"Made it!" Sonic was yelling. "Where did you even land? It's all trees! Tails! Are you okay?"  
Tails pulled off his helmet and re-attached his headset. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm going to try to sneak in through that entrance Eggman blasted open. If Knuckles is here, he'll be around the Master Emerald."  
"And Shadow and Maria?" Sonic said with an edge of worried sarcasm.  
"Eggman will have them," Tails said, although he was less confident about that prospect.  
"Don't forget that Metal Sonic's bad now," Sonic said. "He'll be gunning for you. Blast it, Tails, you weren't supposed to do this alone."  
"I'll be all right," Tails replied, pushing the biplane under the cover of a nearby tree and dragging branches over its wings. It was hard work, but it was sheer delight to smell the dust, the air, the trees - to drag branches around and know that they were his.  
He needed to find Knuckles, but a secondary mission dragged at his heart: to find that tall, dark, electronic cave with the broken electrical components. It had to be here somewhere.  
A fresh trail had been cut through the jungle with the precision of a laser. Tails followed it straight into the hills, where it ended at the shattered remains of a set of stone doors. The hallway, open to the elements, led into the island's palace. A pair of beetle guards clung to the wall on either side.  
Tails grinned. He pulled out the device he had found that hijacked Ancient robots. After its disastrous first outing, he had taken it apart and rewired it. Now it simply shut down any robots he targeted. It only had a range of twenty feet, but that suited his purposes. Tails pressed a button and both beetles clattered to the ground, the lights in their eyes extinguished.  
"The device works now," he told Sonic.  
"Glad to hear it," Sonic growled.  
Tails bit back a laugh. Sonic was not only worried, he was jealous of Tails getting to hang out on the island again.  
"I'm going underground now," Tails added. "We might lose our connection."  
"Stay safe, little bro." Sonic's anger slipped and his concern showed through. "If I don't hear from you by tonight, I'm coming to the rescue, okay?"  
"Okay," Tails replied, and plunged into the tunnel.

* * *

Sonic sat in the new swing seat on his porch, kicking off the railing with one foot as he waited for Tails to check in again. His legs itched for movement and swinging helped. But the fight with the robot dragon had torn the skin around the laser burn wound, making it ten times worse. Now he could barely lift his arms or draw a deep breath without searing pain. Even meds barely touched it.  
So Sonic fidgeted, waiting to heal, waiting for Tails.  
Amy approached from the direction of town. The pink hedgehog's arms were full of paper bags, presumably filled with groceries. She smiled as she stepped up on the porch. "Hi, Sonic! How do you feel?"  
"Rotten," he growled.  
Amy clicked her tongue. "Such a bad mood. Let me put these away." She carried the groceries indoors. Sonic listened to the rustle of bags and the slap of cabinet doors, and shame grew in him. Amy had taken the time to make sure he didn't starve. He owed her more than an ungrateful snarl.  
When she returned, he straightened, sliding to one side to make room for her in the swing. "Sorry for being a jerk."  
Amy sat down and cautiously rubbed his shoulder. "It's understandable. You're in pain."  
Her touch sent a wave of comfort through him. While most movement hurt right now, her gentle hand reminded him of how much he needed touch. Sonic leaned into it a little. "That and I'm worried. There's been no sign of Knux or Shadow. Or Maria. Now Tails got it in his head to land and sneak into the island alone."  
Amy straightened, mouth falling open. "What!"  
"That was my reaction," Sonic replied. "I'm the one who's supposed to be out taking risks. Now all I can do is sit here and watch my friends risk their necks. It sucks!"  
Amy reached for her own headset, then realized she wasn't wearing it. "Did you tell him not to?"  
"Yeah. The creep just said he couldn't hear me and landed anyway."  
Amy groaned and flopped back in the swing, making it sway. "I'll bet it's the island compulsion. Once he got close enough, he couldn't stay away."  
Sonic didn't say anything. Sitting still gave him time to notice things like his acute homesickness for Angel Island. But he had told Knuckles that he quit the team, so he couldn't admit that the longing was there.  
Amy studied his face. "What's wrong?"  
"Everything," Sonic grumbled. When Amy said nothing, he went on, "I don't really want to find Knuckles, all right? He can go be the Guardian somewhere else."  
Amy sighed and tilted her head to one side. "You're acting like a peevish child."  
"Knuckles has the leadership skills of a fruit bat!" Sonic exclaimed. "But we all follow him because some statue told him he was important and he believes it. We're brainwashed, Amy!"  
She gave him a sarcastic look. "If you say it enough times, you might start believing it."  
Sonic tried to fold his arms, then dropped them to his sides again. "I need to believe it."  
"Why?" Amy threw her hands in the air. "Why is it so important that you be the leader? We only put up with your bossing because Eggman has it in for you, personally."  
Sonic winced. "That's the only reason?"  
"Basically, yes." Amy must have realized how harsh this sounded because she rubbed his shoulder again. "You know a lot about Eggman, more than we do. So we help you. Well, Knuckles knows more about Angel Island than any of us. So we follow his orders. Otherwise we fall into slime traps."  
Sonic looked away. "You had to bring that up."  
"The point is," Amy continued, "there's no reason for this power struggle between you and Knuckles. I told you this once before, remember?"  
Sonic kicked the porch railing, setting them swinging. "Yeah. And I tried to stay friends, really, I did. Then Eggman took Angel Island, we lost Metal Sonic, and it all fell apart."  
"We found Maria," Amy pointed out.  
"Yeah, only to lose her again. I don't mind Shadow disappearing, but Maria needed help. Who knows where they are now."  
Amy sighed and gazed out at the ocean. Sonic rocked the swing, hurting, but relieved. He'd needed to talk this out with somebody. His feud with Knuckles seemed so petty now. And telling Knuckles that he quit - it had just been an attempt to hurt him. In his heart of hearts, Sonic would never abandon the island or his friends. But in betraying Knuckles, he had betrayed himself, and now the wound on his chest matched the self-inflicted wound in his soul.  
"What do I do?" Sonic said. "I've screwed stuff up big time. How do I fix it?"  
"Apologize to Knuckles when he turns up again," Amy replied.  
"Yeah, besides that. Tails still hasn't checked in."  
She shook her head. "I don't know, Sonic. The island keeps calling to us, and we'll have to answer eventually. I just wish I knew what happened to the last island crew."  
"That bothers me the more I think about it," Sonic said. He touched his headset. "Tails, can you hear me?"  
"Busy!" Tails replied, his voice crackly with static and the drone of robots.  
"They're chasing him," Sonic exclaimed, leaping to his feet. Pain lanced through his wound. He sucked in his breath, doubled over, and collapsed back into the swing.  
Amy jumped to her feet. "Stay there, Sonic. I'll get Sticks."  
"It's not like I can move anyway," Sonic growled. He pressed a hand to his headset and waited.  
Amy left. Birds sang. A breeze touched his face. Sonic stewed, hating himself and his injury, hating his inability to protect his friends. Tails might get himself killed miles away at any second. Even completely healed, it would take Sonic hours to get to Angel Island. With the shark submarine full of holes, they'd be back to chartering a boat ...  
"Okay, I'm safe," Tails panted.  
Sonic straightened. "What happened?"  
"Ran into a patrol. Detoured through the weight room. Have you ever been through there? It's incredible!"  
That was the island counterbalance room. Sonic imagined a huge bowling ball on a chain. "Eggman knows you're there, now, doesn't he?"  
"Probably." Tails sounded way too cheerful for Sonic's tastes. "There's a whole floor down here that we never saw! Eggman's robots are repairing everything. I can talk to the island now, Sonic! It just lets me straight into the system! And you know the best thing?" Tails giggled breathlessly, as if he couldn't hold it in. "Eggman is locked out!"  
A slow grin spread across Sonic's face. "What do you mean, locked out?"  
Tails laughed again, his delight bubbling over. "He can't even turn on the lights! He has basic computer access and that's all. There's all kinds of doors he can't open because they use that gold touch panel. Some of them are blasted open. It's hilarious!"  
A new, worrisome thought occurred to Sonic. "Don't get caught. He'll use you to access everything."  
Tails was quiet a moment. "I hadn't thought of that."  
"Yeah, uh-huh," Sonic said. "Just find Knuckles and get out of there. And Shadow and Maria, too."  
"Eggman doesn't have them," Tails said. "I checked his systems. No prisoners, no extreme chaos power except the Master Emerald."  
"They might be hiding somewhere," Sonic said. "Keep an eye peeled. And be careful, little bro."  
"You got it. I'll check in later."  
Sonic started to laugh, but stopped as it bothered his wound.  
Amy returned with a large black bag over one shoulder and Sticks in tow. She set the bag on the porch and unzipped it. "This is my new laptop computer. I've set it up to act as a hub for our headsets. Look." She set it in Sonic's lap. It was a slim, sexy laptop with a high-def widescreen and a keyboard like a hundred and four individual finger pillows. Sonic couldn't wait to type something.  
Amy showed him the audio program that turned the laptop operator into a dispatcher who could speak to everyone or any single person. There was a highly detailed map program that showed both roads and terrain features. "Best of all," Amy added, "Tails was using this to data mine Eggman's servers. Check this out." She pulled up a screen filled with maps of Angel Island's floors. Five of them.  
"Uh, didn't we only ever see the first floor?" Sonic said, pointing at it. "What's the rest of this?"  
Amy shook her head. "I don't know. I doubt Eggman does, either. This is data his robots have gathered. Angel Island is massively huge!"  
"Tails just said he had gone down a level," Sonic said, pointing to the second floor. "Look at this. The whole place is a spiral around a center point. What's the center? The Master Emerald?"  
Sticks leaned over the screen, too, studying it with wide eyes.  
Amy studied the maps, too, biting her lower lip. "No, because the Master Emerald is this chamber here, on the first floor, technically."  
"Maybe there's nothing in the center," Sticks said. "It's just dark."  
"Or maybe nobody has mapped it yet," Amy said.  
Sonic flicked through the maps with a new sense of power. He wasn't useless after all. Here were maps and communication tools. He might be laid up, but he could still help his friends.  
"Tails," he said into the headset, "I've got maps of Angel Island. Tell me where you are and I can guide you."


	6. Chapter 6

_"I do not wish to continue,_ " Metal Sonic said in Knuckles's head.  
The little group had been walking through the stone tunnels for what seemed like hours. Between Metal Sonic's headlight eyes, Shadow's glowing red stripes, and Maria's shining eyes, they had enough illumination to see well enough.  
After they had climbed the stairs, the debris had lessened. Most of the lights still hung from the ceiling. However, there were many doors standing open to the right and left. The rooms beyond had been ransacked, furniture shattered against the walls. Knuckles didn't like to think of what must have done it. Shadow's terror unnerved him.  
They turned a corner. The hallway ended in a vast dark space. There Metal Sonic halted and refused to move.  
Knuckles approached the robot, the first time he had dared do so. "Hey, Mecha, dude. What's wrong?" He glanced into the room, checking for monsters. In the dimness, it only looked like more wrecked equipment.  
"I do not wish to continue," the robot repeated.  
"What's wrong?" Shadow asked as he and Maria caught up.  
"Metal Sonic won't go in there," Knuckles replied. "Are there more wisps?"  
 _I detect nothing living_ , Metal Sonic told him.  
Shadow and Maria exchanged a long look. Knuckles suspected that they communicated mind to mind, the way Metal Sonic did with him. Being in Maria's presence was like walking alongside the Master Emerald. He could close his eyes and sense her only as the giant gem. If he dared, he could probably communicate with her using only his mind. But Shadow objected. Knuckles wasn't enamored with the idea, either. Maria was as dangerous as a high cliff. If he dared to look over its edge, he would fall until he lost himself.  
After a moment, Maria said, "Aren't my quarters this way?"  
"Sort of," Shadow said, shouldering forward to peer into the gloom. He ventured a few steps inside, peering around. Slowly he turned back to them, ears flattened. "I don't think we should go this way."  
"But the other passage was caved in," Maria pointed out. "This is the only way."  
Knuckles said out of the corner of his mouth, "What's in there, Mecha?"  
 _Why do you call me Mecha?_  
"I get tired of saying Metal Sonic all the time."  
The robot considered this and gave a tiny shrug. "/There is a large amount of experimental equipment inside. Some of it is operational. There is residual chaos power. The signature matches Maria's."  
"Wait." Knuckles held up one hand as he processed this. "Hey Shads, he says there's bits of Maria's power in there."  
Shadow hunched his shoulders. "We'll go a different way."  
"My power?" Maria strode into the room. She no longer shuffled like an invalid-instead she walked with the energy of a healthy young human. "All of you, come."  
Power resonated in her voice. Knuckles felt it the way he sensed the constant pull of Angel Island. He followed her. So did Shadow and Metal Sonic, heads down, fists clenched.  
The wisp that had followed them darted in to hover above Maria's shoulder. It whimpered.  
Knuckles hung back a few steps. If something came to life and attacked them, he wanted to see it coming. He ran his fingers over his barbed knuckles beneath their layer of athletic tape. They were his only weapons, but they'd have to do. He had to defend the Master Emerald-no, Maria.  
She placed a hand on Metal Sonic's head and guided his lights over the objects in the room. The robot complied without a word. Yet a high-pitched ringing sound emanated from him, heard only by Knuckles. Metal Sonic didn't want to look at the things he was seeing.  
Knuckles didn't see the problem at first. There was a reclining chair, like one at a dentist, uprooted and lying on its side. There was a jumble of wall panels that had once divided the room into smaller spaces. There were broken lights, crushed like eggshells. There were old computers, crushed and dented beyond recovery. A broken centrifuge lay against the wall, its spinning wheel dented out of shape.  
The light played over the wall, illuminating a sign. _Do not approach the specimen._  
The four of them stood perfectly still, staring at the sign. _Specimen_. The word burned in Knuckles's mind. A specimen was a fossil in a museum or a brain in a jar. It wasn't a person.  
Maria's lips formed a word for a second before she spoke. "Wh-what specimen?"  
Shadow cast her a dark look. "We tried to warn you."  
Metal Sonic jerked out from under Maria's hand and turned his lights toward a doorway in the far wall. He walked toward it and they followed.  
"I don't understand," Maria said, her voice low and troubled. "Did they mean the wisps? But they were kept in a different area."  
Knuckles thought he knew, and watched Shadow. The black hedgehog didn't answer her questions, but he wore a haunted expression.  
As they passed through the doorway, Metal Sonic paused to illuminate another peeling sign on the wall. It said, "Hazmat suits required. 30 minutes beyond this point."  
"Hazmat," Maria murmured. "That means radiation."  
"Or chaos energy," Shadow muttered.  
"You said it was my power," Maria said. She stopped, one hand steadying herself against the wall. "Oh my. Was this-were they studying me?"  
Shadow gave a single nod.  
"I was the specimen?"

* * *

" _We_ were the specimen," Shadow replied, the words heavy in his mouth. "Look." He pushed open a door that stood half-open nearby. Inside, despite an overturned table and broken glass, the walls still sported growth charts of a human figure, from baby to near-adulthood. Beside it was a hedgehog growth chart with Shadow's silhouette.  
Shadow lifted a fragment of a jar that still had a label on it. Specimen hair samples.  
He held it out to Maria, but she put her hands behind her back. Her distress flowed to him in a constant torrent.  
Metal Sonic was already pressing on, obviously in a hurry to leave. Shadow followed him, towing Maria by one hand. Knuckles, always loyal, followed close behind without speaking.  
They passed many more labs that Shadow averted his eyes from. A chemical stench still flowed from some of them. He and Maria hadn't been the only experiments-there had been others in whom the bloodline of the Ancients flowed nearly pure. The scientists had collected them like trading cards and sought to mine the secrets of their powers, trying to breed weapons.  
Shadow had suspicions about where those experiments had gone. Which ones had had children. Who the children had grown up to become.  
He and Maria, however, were in a class by themselves. Nothing had ever matched their power, their ability. It was why they had been feared.  
They entered an access hallway. The opposite wall was paneled with metal with a catwalk along the second floor. A sagging staircase led up to it.  
Maria halted, frowning, pushing back her long golden hair. "My chambers should be here. What is this place?"  
Shadow climbed the stairs, pausing halfway up to shake the railing. The stairs creaked but held firm. "This is where we lived, love." He kept his voice gentle, even though speaking in such a way before his enemies galled him. "Come and witness the farce we never saw."  
They climbed the stairs one at a time. Shadow led them down the catwalk with a sick anticipation in his stomach. He had only learned of all this after Maria had gone into suspension. After that, security had been more lax and he had gotten out one night. Roaming these halls at night, weighted by loneliness, hearing the cries of the experiments, until he wandered into the lowest level and discovered the greatest secret of all.  
He wasn't ready to share that one, yet.  
They followed the catwalk to a heavy reinforced door. Shadow hauled it open with a ear-bending squeal of rusty hinges. Maria stepped inside with a smile, then hesitated. "This isn't my room. What is this?"  
Shadow, Metal Sonic and Knuckles entered. It was a tiny room with a glass panel on one wall. Before it was an instrument panel and a chair that had escaped the destruction.  
Metal Sonic shone his eyes on the glass panel.  
It was a window with a broken shutter hanging over half of it. Beyond was a room with pink wallpaper, a chair, and a dresser.  
Maria braced herself against the control panel with a stifled cry. "My room! Is this-they were observing me? Why?"  
"We were the specimen," Shadow said through his teeth. "Remember after the gene-splicing, how they moved us into those nicer rooms? That was when it started."  
Maria drew a deep, shuddering breath. Her eyes glowed brighter with a flicker of red lightning, and it seemed to cost her a great deal to keep it under control. "I don't ... really remember the gene splicing," she murmured. "I was too sick afterward."  
Shadow laid a hand on her shoulder. Her power boiled into him, angry and afraid. He closed his eyes and drew it in, helping her calm herself. Nearby, Knuckles fidgeted, as if he wanted to help, but didn't dare.  
Maria backed away from the instrument panel. "I don't want to see any more."  
Metal Sonic was too happy to lead them out of the room and back down the stairs.  
Knuckles, however, hovered at Shadow's elbow, as if wishing to speak to him. Shadow ignored him until they had crossed the big laboratory room and had returned to the outer passage. Then, as Maria and Metal Sonic moved ahead, Shadow muttered, "What?"  
"We need to get out of here," the big echidna whispered.  
Shadow shot him a sideways look. In the gloom, Knuckles's face was grim, worried.  
"Why?" Shadow replied in an undertone. "Is our grisly history too much for you?"  
"There's something alive in this place," Knuckles whispered. "It's not the wisps. I don't want it to notice us."  
Shadow lifted his head and gazed around at the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Beyond the shuffle of their footsteps, there was only layer upon layer of silence. He reached out with his extra sense that allowed him to sense chaos energy.  
He touched something alive.  
It twisted at his touch, trying to reach him, to become aware of his presence. Shadow opened his eyes with a gasp, retracting his power. Somewhere deep within the facility, a subsonic rumble shook the walls.  
Maria spun and stared at him. "What did you do?" she cried in a whisper.  
Knuckles shook his head and rubbed his forehead. "You woke it up, didn't you?"  
Shadow braced a hand against the wall, feeling the subtle vibrations of the monster. "Maybe we should leave."  
"No." Maria drew herself up, her thin hands doubled into fists. "I'm learning what I must do. It involves ... that." She turned slowly, as if zeroing in on the monster's location. "We will face it together."  
Knuckles groaned.

* * *

Eggman was looking at his monitors when Angel Island rocked ever so slightly. He grabbed his armrests and held his breath until the earthquake ended. He was no stranger to earthquakes-the archipelago was geologically active-but this was different. The seismic sensors he had set up on the first day of his occupation registered a disturbance at the very roots of the island.  
Angel Island had moved.  
Eggman tapped keys on the Angel Island control panel, as well as on his own keyboard attached to his own computers. "Robots! Report readings on that tremor."  
Data flowed in as the robot's obediently relayed their recordings. Orbot and Cubot rushed in, carrying a broom and a mop.  
"Did you feel that, boss?" Cubot exclaimed. "I think Angel Island is a volcano!"  
"It's not a volcano, nitwit," Eggman replied, scrolling through raw data dumps. "There was an earthquake of some kind. Orbot! What happened in the weight room?"  
The red robot had been surveying the weights at the time of the quake. His blue eyes glinted brighter. "All of them swayed, boss. Iron spheres the size of buildings! Kind of frightening."  
"Metal Sonic, where are you?" Eggman growled. "Stealth wasps! Report!"  
More reports rolled in. The wasps were spread evenly over Bygone Island in a grid. There was no sign of Metal Sonic in the jungle.  
"Blast," Eggman muttered through his mustache. "The rodents must have captured him after all. Orbot, Cubot, I'm leaving you in charge. If there's any more seismic activity, contact me immediately."  
"Where are you going, boss?"  
"To get my robot back."

* * *

Tails followed a long curving hallway that was set with stone alcoves every fifteen feet. Each alcove had a statue of an echidna in it. If only he had time to look at them all. Instead, they were merely places to hide when a beetle patrol passed by every five point three minutes.  
Excitement and terror rolled within the young fox. Excitement about exploring, but terror at the earthquake. As an island crew member, it had been burned into his memory that the island was meant to fly. It couldn't be connected to the ocean floor, except maybe by centuries of barnacle growth. So what had rocked it like that? Had there been a local quake strong enough to affect the island's balance?  
Another possibility was that Eggman had activated some ancient machinery that was warming up the hovering mechanisms. Sonic had said that there were five floors. Five! And Tails had barely explored the second!  
Sonic's voice spoke in his headset. "You should be coming up on an intersection. Turn left. There's more alcoves for cover."  
"Roger," Tails whispered. Sonic's voice comforted him. It reminded him that he wasn't alone on this adventure. The only thing better would have been if his friend was at his side, making snarky remarks about the robots and statues.  
He turned the corner and ducked into an alcove to catch his breath. A floodlight had been mounted over the intersection. By its light, Tails gazed at a female echidna statue, her dreadlocks woven with ornaments.  
"Sonic," he whispered, "there was an earthquake a minute ago. Did you feel it?"  
"An earthquake? No. That's freaky. I should have been rocking and rolling over here. How bad was it?"  
"Just a tremor, but ... the island's not part of the ground, Sonic. It shouldn't have earthquakes."  
Sonic was silent a moment. After a while he said, "Looking at the national quake tracking website now. Nothing new in the last hour."  
"Nothing?" Tails leaned against the cool stone wall. "So ... was it not an earthquake?"  
"Um ..." Sonic sounded uncertain. "Any idea what's in the middle of the island?"  
"My electronic cave," Tails replied cheerfully. "From my dream."  
"Your dream. Right. There weren't any giant machines or monsters or anything, were there?"  
"The electronic cave is a machine," Tails replied. "But it's broken and I need to fix it."  
"So it wouldn't be rocking the island."  
"No." Tails waited for a patrol to pass, then sprinted down the hall. "Where am I going?"  
"Looks like some old living quarters. Straight shot down the hall, there will be stairs on your right." Sonic hesitated, then said, "Do you think the island is ... well, alive?"  
Tails didn't answer until he was hidden in an empty stone room with a smooth tile floor. "I don't think it is, but it runs on chaos energy. Who knows?"  
"Maybe it's rejecting Eggman."  
"Maybe." Tails didn't find that very likely. The island was passively resisting by locking Eggman out, but it wasn't actively fighting back. It was too broken. Besides, as the mechanic, he had an impression of the island's entire system imprinted on his mind, like the ghost of an intricate cobweb. It was a fantastic construct, but it wasn't alive.  
He hoped.


	7. Chapter 7

Deep underground, Shadow, Maria, Metal Sonic, and Knuckles had stopped for a rest.  
Shadow had found a room with a musty old sofa that was surprisingly intact. He and Maria sat on it to rest. Maria was tiring and beginning to tremble.  
Knuckles sat on the floor against the wall. After a moment, Metal Sonic sat beside him. Unlike him, though, Metal Sonic sank into a slouch with his forehead against his knees. His hands rested on the floor, palms upward, and his eyes shut off. Watching him, Knuckles had the oddest feeling that the robot was exhausted. But that couldn't be - robots didn't get tired.  
Then he noticed that Maria lay on the couch in a similar position. Knuckles looked back and forth between the girl and the robot. Was everyone in this oddball group connected somehow?  
A slow pain built inside him. Knuckles leaned against the wall with a sigh. He was the Guardian. He should be protecting them all. Instead, he was a third wheel with Shadow as the Master Emerald's protector.  
No, Maria's protector. In Knuckles's head, the two remained confused. With his eyes closed, he sensed only the giant emerald's power emanating from Maria's spot. He should be the one looking after her. But he had no food, no water. There were no supplies left in this creepy place. The wisp that followed them didn't seem interested in food, but it didn't leave Maria, either. It was probably feeding off her power.  
He murmured to Metal Sonic, "Ever feel like a total failure?"  
In his head, the robot replied, _I do not understand._  
"You wouldn't," Knuckles said bitterly. "I killed the old Metal Sonic. The good one. You're the new one who doesn't know anything."  
The robot lifted his head from his knees and looked at Knuckles, the red filter back over his eyes. _I know much_.  
"Yeah? Well, do you know that you bargained to help me if I got you a voice?"  
The robot's eyes blinked off, then on.  
"Didn't think so." Knuckles drew his knees to his chest. "You told me to kill you. Showed me a diagram. After Eggman reprogrammed you and everything. I didn't want to, but I had to save Maria. So ... I did. And you know what? I'm sorry."  
Metal Sonic gazed at him, unmoving.  
Shadow and Maria were listening, but Knuckles didn't care. The raw pain in his heart kept him talking.  
"I'm the Guardian. I'm supposed to protect everyone. Instead, I destroyed the island's Ghost."  
Metal Sonic twitched.  
Knuckles went on. "Sonic's ditched everything - the island, the call, me, everything. I didn't know it was possible to reject it like that. I'll bet the others follow him. He always was a better leader than me. So that leaves just me. And I can't do this." He buried his face in his arms. A terrible loneliness crashed over him like a tidal wave. He hadn't allowed himself to process Sonic's words until now, but their implications were deep and terrible.  
Again he saw Sonic's smug face. _I quit. Screw Angel Island._  
Knuckles should had punched him. But the betrayal was so unexpected, so visceral, that Knuckles hadn't known how to react. He stood there, aghast, fumbling for a retort. All he could do was walk away. Leave Sonic to his tiny, pathetic life and return to bigger things. But it hurt. Sonic had loved the island, too.  
 _You were my friend, Sonic. But not anymore._

* * *

Maria spoke in Shadow's head. "Did you know all that?"  
"No," Shadow whispered. He struggled not to feel the echidna's pain, despite it being so close to his own. Only Shadow was allowed to suffer from abandonment and loneliness. No one else was worthy.  
Maria sat up a little and focused on Metal Sonic.

* * *

Metal Sonic sat there, staring at Knuckles, trying to remember. His data banks were still empty. But Knuckles had called him the Ghost, just as Maria had.  
 _I am Metal Sonic, and I am Ghost._  
There were connections there that had been severed, the links leading nowhere. Metal Sonic watched Knuckles, who sat there in mournful silence now. Maria gazed at both of them, her blue eyes glowing in the dark as brightly as Metal Sonic's red ones.  
She brushed Metal Sonic with power. Just a tiny amount, but it registered. Metal Sonic met her eyes.  
 _He's right. He did kill you. He grieves for you, Metal Sonic._  
 _I need no grief, the robot replied defiantly. I am Metal Sonic._  
 _You may have lost your memories, but the Master Emerald forgets nothing. Would you like me to restore your missing data?_  
Metal Sonic straightened. _How?_  
 _I shall trickle the data to you. It is harder for me to reach from down here._  
Impossibly, a table in his empty database began to fill. Realization dawned as he processed it.  
 _I wished for a voice._

* * *

Sonic was sitting on his porch with Amy's laptop, staring at maps and helping Tails, when Eggman swooped over the beach in his little round hovercraft. He was followed by a swarm of wasps with crab pinchers.  
"All right, Sonic," Eggman said, "hand over Metal Sonic."  
Sonic pulled his headset off one ear. Tails had found that the third floor of Angel Island was completely dark, so he was taking apart a light fixture on the second floor to rig up a flashlight. Sonic had a breathing space. The good thing was, if Eggman was here, then he wasn't on the island where he might discover Tails, Knuckles or Maria.  
"I don't have your stupid robot," Sonic told his enemy. "Go away. I'm playing an online war game."  
"I lost contact with him here," Eggman growled. "That blasted Shadow used his teleport ability. Where are they?"  
"Beats me, Egghead. We thought Shadow hid in the jungle somewhere."  
This was a depressingly plausible conversation, Sonic reflected. Eggman rubbed the back of his head, as if considering how much information to spill.  
"I've had my robots combing Bygone," Eggman admitted. "They're not in the jungle. And they're not on Angel Island. I'd have detected the energy surge."  
Sonic's stomach wobbled uneasily. He and his friends had assumed all this time that the four missing people were on the island. If they weren't there, then where had they gone?  
"Sure, you're just not looking hard enough," said Sonic with a little too much question in his voice. "It's not like you can use our island computers, right?"  
"They're my computers now," Eggman growled. "And they're working perfectly."  
Tails, who was listening to this conversation over the headset, said in Sonic's ear, "They're working, but he can't use them."  
Eggman pointed up the beach. "The robot dragon is still where it shut down. Metal Sonic was controlling it."  
Sonic blinked. "He was?"  
Eggman waved a hand. "It shut down because he lost connection. He would only lose connection if you destroyed him or reprogrammed him. Again. So which was it?"  
Sonic swung in the porch swing. There was a fight coming and it made his legs itch. Too bad his burn hurt so bad. "Neither, Eggman. Shadow took him in that teleport and we haven't seen them since."  
Eggman grumbled and fiddled with the instruments on his hovercraft.  
As he did, Amy and Sticks trotted up, armed with hammer and boomerang. Amy stepped up onto the porch. "What's Eggman want, Sonic?"  
"He's looking for Metal Sonic," the blue hedgehog replied. "I told him the truth."  
"That Shadow took him in a chaos control and we haven't seen him since?"  
"Yeah, that."  
The hedgehogs exchanged a silent, concerned look. Sonic was in no shape to battle robots. Only Amy and Sticks remained of their group, with Tails and Knuckles being elsewhere.  
"I hate it when you tell the truth," Eggman grumbled. "My scans aren't picking up anything. Not even that emerald girl. Where'd you hide her?"  
"Shadow took her, too," Amy said. "And if you can't find them, and we can't find them ..." She turned to Sonic with a troubled look. "Where are they?"  
"Maybe a different island," Sonic said. "Shadow's been around a while. I imagine he has hiding places on every island in the archipelago."  
"No," Amy whispered. "They went deep."  
Sonic stared at her and his eyes widened. To cover for this, he forced a smirk and looked at Eggman. "I hear that you sell your best robots to arms dealers."  
Eggman shrugged and said nothing.  
"Robots that you tested on me!" Sonic exclaimed. "That's not fair. I want a cut."  
Eggman leaned forward. "Let me get this straight. You want me to pay you to fight my robots?"  
Sonic tried to look comfortable in the porch swing, as if he were merely too lazy to get up, instead of too injured. "Heck yes. You think I can get by on what I make protecting people from you? Without me, you'd have no robot training. Cough up."  
"The original way I tested my robots," Eggman replied, "was to use them to level towns and kill people. I could go back to doing that, I suppose."  
"I'll bet your robots get stronger fighting me," Sonic said.  
Eggman snorted. "I don't have time for this. Stop fighting if you want. I've got to find that robot of mine. If you're hiding him, I'll find out." He flew off, trailed by his cloud of robots, which looked disappointed in the lack of battle.  
Sonic shifted positions and wiped his sweaty forehead. "I'm glad he wasn't picking fights this time. Amy, what did you say?"  
"The same thing I keep saying," she replied, digging her fingers into her pink spines. "That they went deep."  
"I know what that means!" Sonic gazed at her, his green eyes intense. "When we were fighting Lyric, we found all these underground ruins with his stuff in them. I'll bet they went deep - underground!"  
Amy gazed at him, troubled. Sticks stepped up on the porch, fiddling with her boomerang. "There's bad stuff underground. People say I'm crazy when I talk about it. But it's no crazier than an ancient snake wearing a robot suit!"  
Sonic nodded. "I thought you said Metal Sonic had gone back to Eggman."  
Sticks held up one finger. "He returned to his master. I never said that was Eggman."  
Sonic and Amy exchanged hopeful looks. "What, he got his memory back and joined us?"  
Sticks shrugged. "The prediction wasn't that specific. If I had to guess, I'd say it was that glowing alien girl."  
Sonic gazed at the ocean, considering this. "Does it scare anybody else that Maria might have a pet killer robot?"  
Amy hefted her hammer. "Definitely. But I'd rather she has him under her control than Eggman. By the way." She rested her hammer on her shoulder. "Did I hear Eggman say that Metal Sonic controlled that robot dragon?"  
"Yeah, weird, huh?" Sonic said. "I didn't think Eggman trusted him enough to give him any minions."  
"Maybe he didn't!" Amy exclaimed. "Maybe it's from Angel Island, and only crew could activate it."  
Sonic nearly leaped to his feet before he remembered his burn and the laptop. "Somebody go see if it has a gold touch plate!"  
Sticks lifted her boomerang. "What if it attacks us?"  
"We're island crew!" Sonic exclaimed. "If we can activate it, that dragon is ours. And I want a dragon."


	8. Chapter 8

Maria lived and breathed at the center of a web of chaos magic. As she rested on the old sofa, eyes flickering beneath closed lids, she sensed all the minds connected to her own. Ranged around her were three bright figures-Shadow, Metal Sonic, and Knuckles.  
Shadow radiated power, but also reflected her own power back to her. His profile was as familiar to her as the inside of her own mind-her beloved brother. Fear and anger swirled within him like fire beneath water. Fear at this place, fear of losing her, fear of her and what she had become. Anger at the others who dared help her, anger that he had not been the one to awaken her. Maria could not help him overcome any of it. He would have to work it out on his own.  
Metal Sonic, by comparison, was a deep, tranquil mountain lake. At first glance he only reflected his surroundings-reacting as a computer should. But light and power streamed from his circuits as if he were a living creature. One filament of power streamed into the distance, tying him to Angel Island, a connection that no amount of hardware purging could remove. Deep beneath his surface, Metal Sonic was passionately miserable. A chunk of his mind was missing-not just his memory. The hole was limned with chaos energy as the Master Emerald trickled stored information back into his memory. His programmed loyalty to Eggman hung around his neck like a dog's collar, forcing loyalty. Metal Sonic would betray them because he had no choice. Maria pondered this. Perhaps giving him a voice would break that collar.  
Knuckles was a sleeping volcano. Outwardly he was big, burly, and not exceptionally bright. On the inside, he was a complex cave system of hot magma, compressed diamonds, and hot springs to refresh and restore. He burned orange in her mind's eye like living flame. Energy looped out of him and back in again, like flares on the surface of the sun. A powerful line like a comet's tail connected him to Angel Island, making Metal Sonic's connection look delicate as a cobweb. He wore his guardian role like armor, carrying it at all times, conscious of those around him. A line of energy connected him to Maria, established from the first time he touched a chaos emerald and it seized his mind. He was too strong for that, now. His power fed, healed, and anchored Maria. No matter how far she wandered in the ethereal realm of chaos magic, he would always be able to recall her. More than Shadow, even, although Shadow must never find out. Shadow's love was an ill, obsessive love, frantic and feverish. Knuckles's love, by comparison, was as rock-steady as the mountain he resembled. While they both loved her, Knuckles's love was the more wholesome. Particularly because he didn't know that he did.  
Metal Sonic loved no one, but Maria had the impression that love was the missing piece of his mind. It explained his misery, his quiet melancholy.  
In the distance, she felt the others. Sonic, embodiment of the wind, proud and strong, now hurting inside and out.  
Tails, whose connection with Angel Island had driven him back to it, where he glowed with joy.  
Amy, who mothered the group, cared for them, was often neglected but didn't mind. Her love was as fathomless as an ocean trench.  
Sticks, damaged, peering through the cracks in her own psyche at the realities of the unseen world.  
Together, they formed a web of power, bound together by love and regard for one another. Only Shadow remained disconnected, cutting himself off from their support by his own hurt.  
And then there was the Other.  
It lay at the bottom of everything, an immense living shape, dreaming of using its own power to destroy everything. It lived in constant agony. With every throb of its heart, it vowed revenge and suffering upon those who had hurt it. Even with all her power, Maria feared to touch that mind. Knuckles and Shadow had barely probed in its direction and it had shaken the earth. It lay still in its bed like a vengeful crocodile, alert to their presence, watchful for an opportunity.  
"When I am stronger, I will speak to it," Maria thought. "I will learn who it is and how to aid it."  
As she studied those around her, her awareness spread outward to the inhabitants of the islands, then the mainland, growing fainter the farther she reached. At the very edge of her reach lay another web of minds.  
They were joined together like her own family, but tighter, more intentional, more focused. They glared at her like a constellation of stars, reeking of power and cold, calculated hatred. Two of them were the hyena and tiger who had come to her hospital room.  
/We want you within our web, they seemed to whisper. Think of how much stronger we shall become. If they will not give you up, we shall come and take you.  
Maria opened her eyes with a gasp, her awareness snapping back down to the confines of her senses.  
Shadow stiffened beside her. "What's wrong?"  
Maria stood up, trying to ignore the way her legs shook under her weight. "I know where we must go."

***

"Okay Sonic," Tails said into his headset, "I've got a light. Heading downstairs."  
"Gotcha," Sonic replied.  
At the end of a stone passage on Angel Island's second floor, the young fox had taken apart a light crystal and wired it into an extra battery he had brought for his tablet computer. A staircase nearby descended into darkness. Lots of relief carvings on the wall above it seemed to indicate that the lower levels housed machinery. Tails couldn't wait to get down there.  
Eggman's robot patrols stopped short of this staircase. Either there were robots below that operated in the dark, or for some reason there were no robots. Sonic said he had maps of the lower floors, so robots had gone there at one point. Maybe Eggman was concentrating on the upper levels and hadn't reached the lower ones with repairs yet.  
Tails ignited the light crystal, which glowed a warm yellow, like a lantern. A wire led from it to the battery in one of his belt pouches. Carrying it and feeling daring, he descended the stairs into the unknown.  
A cool draft flattened his headfur as he descended. It smelled musty, like a basement, with an undertone of silicon that made his heart beat faster. That was how it had smelled in his dream with the electronic cave. He had to be close.  
As Tails reached the bottom, he held his light higher. He had entered a hexagonal chamber with conduits that ran from the ceiling and into the floor like a huge pillar. He circled them and found three doors, all open and leading into darkness.  
"Okay Sonic, I'm in this weird conduit room. Which door do I go through?"  
"This third floor is weird," Sonic muttered. "I think the left one, but it might be the middle. I can't tell if these areas connect or not. What's down there?"  
Tails held his light through the left doorway. Inside was dark, open space. His light illuminated a narrow stone walkway, but nothing else. "Looks like something huge." He ventured out on the walkway, shining his light about. About thirty feet away, across empty space, he spotted a coil of white fiber optic cable as big around as his waist. His light only illuminated the side of what looked like a giant ring.  
"There's a huge Tesla coil thing," Tails said. "My light doesn't reach that far."  
"Keep going," Sonic said. "You should reach more rooms and stuff."  
Tails picked his way along the walkway. After a while he came to a spot where the white cable had fallen across the walkway, burning the stone black where it touched. The fox spun his tails and helicoptered over it. On the far side he glimpsed another wall with a doorway and several windows. A control room? He hurried toward it.  
As he entered, Sonic said, "Wait a minute."  
The tone in his voice made the fur stand up on Tails's neck. Tails froze inside the doorway, gazing around at dark monitors, control panels, and another thick conduit with a sliding housing built over it.  
"What's wrong, Sonic?"  
"There's another user on this frequency. I think they're listening in."  
Ice washed through him. Tails drew a quick breath. "Who's there?"  
A strange voice said, "Me."  
"Get off our frequency!" Sonic snarled.  
"It's my frequency, now," said the stranger. He had a strong masculine voice, like a radio DJ. "Tails, I'd advise you to run screaming back to the second floor. Before I find you."  
Tails shrank against the wall and flicked off his light. The immense spaces around him could house any number of enemies. Worse, this person had probably been watching his light the whole time.  
"Who are you?" Sonic demanded. "Are you with Eggman? Or those NME people?"  
The voice chuckled. "I know nothing of either. In fact, you annoy me, Sonic. I don't want to talk to you." Sonic's voice cut off.  
"Now, Tails," the voice went on in conversational tones, "are you going to leave? Or do I have to find and destroy you?"  
Tails didn't answer. Before he had turned off his light, he had seen a doorway at the far end of the room. He crept toward it.  
"So, stay it is," the voice said. "By all means, Tails, use your light. I can see you whether or not you use it."  
The stranger must have infra-red tracking. "Are you Metal Sonic?" Tails ventured as he snapped the light on.  
"The Ghost? No, I am not," the stranger replied.  
Tails peered into the next room and froze. It was a long hallway with open windows on either side. The floor was littered with broken robot bodies-wasps and beetles, Eggman's favorites. At the far end was a closed door with a gold panel on it.  
"Go ahead, Tails," the stranger said with malice in his voice. "Walk down the hallway."  
Tails studied the windows. They had no glass, were a foot tall and five feet long, and were three feet above the floor. It was easy to picture saw blades whizzing through those windows at chest height. He knelt and examined the floor. It was featureless concrete - no floor tiles that could be pressure plates in disguise. He stood and raised his light to the ceiling. More featureless stone. The ceiling might be able to drop in slabs, crushing everything beneath. But the robots weren't crushed. They were shattered. The saw blades through the windows theory was the most likely.  
"Sonic can still hear you, by the way," the stranger said conversationally. "You can't hear him."  
"Sonic, it's a trapped hallway," Tails said. "He's going to try to kill me somehow." He peered out of one window. More of the huge dark room. "Mister, none of these machines are running. How do you expect to attack me?" He managed to hold the quaver out of his voice. /Be strong for Sonic. You can out-think this creep.  
"That's right," the stranger said. "Nothing is running. It's perfectly safe."  
Tails stuck his light in his belt, then dropped to all fours and crawled forward. Something whistled through the windows above his head, small and too fast to see.  
"What annoys me the most," the stranger continued, as more things whistled through the windows at Tails's approximate position, "is how you took one of my lights as a torch. Not even the invaders did that."  
Tails kept quiet and continued crawling.  
"How are you still moving?" the stranger said in disbelief. Several things whisked by in quick succession. "You should be sliced like a ham right now." He chuckled again. "Your friend Sonic is very upset."  
"You think?" Tails muttered.  
As the door at the far end drew closer, Tails put together the odd things the stranger had said. My light. The Ghost. The invaders. He stopped to rest in a spot between windows. The objects flying through the windows stopped as the stranger waited for him to move on.  
"So," Tails said with a reckless, giddy laugh, "you're mad that I took this light?"  
"Very," the stranger replied.  
"And you call Metal Sonic the Ghost?"  
"That's his title."  
"I know who you are!" Tails exclaimed, shuddering with a mixture of elation and terror. "You're an Angel Island AI."  
"Well done," the stranger replied. "Since you've displayed your astounding powers of deduction, let me display mine. After my crew abandoned me, an invader took charge of my precious facility, seeking to pillage and destroy what he cannot repair. After I eliminated his first wave of repair drones, he sent you to access the damage."  
Tails had to draw several breaths before he trusted his voice. The island systems were talking to him, like the Speaker! But it didn't know who he was. "I'm not with Eggman," he said after a moment. "I'm the island's mechanic."  
"I believe you," the AI replied with enough sarcasm to choke a goat. "In fact, I believe you enough to allow you to open that door at the end of the hall."  
Tails gazed at the door and its beckoning gold plate. Of course - what a simple test. Only island crew could open those doors. The AI probably recognized Metal Sonic because he could open them, too.  
Not trusting the AI, Tails crawled the rest of the way. No more mysterious weapons flew through the windows, but he fully expected to take one in the face the second he stood up. The AI's aim had been deadly so far.  
He reached the door, rose to his knees, and pressed his hand to the gold plate. The door clicked and swung inward.  
"Well well!" the AI said with a new tone in its voice. "Maybe you truly are one of my crew."  
"Of course I am," Tails said, standing up and pushing through the door. Inside was a small room with more darkened monitors on the walls as well as control panels beneath each one.  
"Not so fast." The door slammed shut and locked with a click. Across the room, another door did the same.  
Tails ran to the door, but there was no gold plate on this side. "Sonic, he locked me in!"  
"If you're really the mechanic," said the AI smoothly, "then you should have no trouble repairing everything in this room. Otherwise, well, you'll die of thirst in a couple of days, so no need to worry about long imprisonment."  
"You're a jerk," Tails said through his teeth.  
"I am Ramussan," the AI corrected. "The beating heart of Angel Island."


	9. Chapter 9

"So I touched it and now it follows me," Amy was saying to Sticks. They were walking up the beach toward their neighborhood with a car-sized robot dragon thumping at their heels. It kept its eyes on Amy, meekly striding along through the sand.  
"I don't trust it," Sticks muttered, watching it over her shoulder. "It tried to kill us."  
"Because Eggman was controlling it through Metal Sonic," the pink hedgehog explained. "Now it's mine. It'll attack whoever I tell it to."  
Sonic appeared in the distance, pelting toward them. His every movement conveyed alarm - especially since any movements right now hurt him so much.  
"This doesn't look good," Sticks muttered.  
"He shouldn't be running around," Amy replied, frowning.  
Sonic reached them, panting and holding his bandaged chest. "Tails is in trouble."  
Amy straightened. "What?"  
"Some AI locked me out of our channel then trapped him somewhere!"  
Amy waved both hands. "Wait, wait, slow down. Are you saying that Eggman hacked my computer?"  
"It wasn't Eggman." Sonic's green eyes were wild. "Tails woke up some Angel Island computer guy. He called himself Ramussan. He listened in on our radio, then locked me out so Tails could only talk to him. Now he's got Tails trapped!"  
Amy's heart trembled with excitement and dread. This meant that they had to return to Angel Island, Eggman or no Eggman. It also meant facing a new threat that none of them had ever heard of. "I didn't know Angel Island had artificial intelligence. The Ancients had that?"  
"Yeah, look at the Speaker." Sonic dug both hands into his spines. "How can we get to the island? The shark is broken and Tails took the plane."  
Amy patted the robot dragon's shoulder and smiled.  
Sonic noticed it for the first time. "Whoa. You woke it up?"  
"He's now my faithful servant," Amy grinned. "There's a gold panel on his side."  
Sonic's grin faded. "How can he get us to Angel Island, though?"  
Amy stood on tiptoe to touch a rounded engine compartment that protruded from the dragon's shoulder. "He has jet engines. He can fly us there."  
"Won't Eggman see us coming?" Sticks asked.  
"He thinks this is his robot, right?" Amy said. "We'll pretend we've been taken prisoner."

* * *

Knuckles followed Maria down into the depths of the old facility against his better judgment.  
She led the way down the concrete passage, Metal Sonic at her side for light, stepping around piles of debris and broken furniture. They had descended back into the levels that had been destroyed by a mysterious disaster. Maria led the way as if she knew exactly where she was going.  
Shadow walked beside Knuckles, arms folded and shoulders hunched, as if trying to shield himself from attack.  
"You know her," Knuckles whispered. "Where is she taking us?"  
The black hedgehog shook his head a little. "I don't know."  
"She had some kind of revelation back there, didn't she? A dream or something."  
Shadow shook his head again. "She was in a trance of some kind. I don't know. She knows things."  
Knuckles didn't remark on the oddity of Shadow actually speaking to him with a semblance of civility. They were both in this together, and Maria was leading them back toward danger without a word of explanation.  
The malevolent presence lingered in Knuckles's mind, a faint touch of another chaos consciousness. It wasn't the wisp, which attended Maria like a parrot on her shoulder. Shadow knew exactly what it was. Could he be persuaded to talk about it? Maybe if Knuckles went about it carefully.  
"You know, Lyric was pretty bonkers," Knuckles said. "He lived underground like this. But his place was bigger, remember?"  
Shadow nodded.  
"How come you didn't help us beat him?"  
"I was otherwise occupied," Shadow replied through his teeth.  
Knuckles fell silent for a while, inviting Shadow to fill the silence. To his surprise, Shadow did.  
"I know you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, echidna. Do you know the history of the Calamity?"  
"That disaster that wiped out the Ancients?" Knuckles said. "Wasn't it a bunch of wars and chaos power and stuff?"  
Shadow smirked. "If you'd like to put it that way. The wars weren't what buried their cities and ruined their technology."  
Knuckles didn't like the direction this conversation was going. "Bombs?"  
"Let me tell you a story," Shadow said, smiling. He kept his arms folded, the red stripes on them glowing a dull red. "Once upon a time, there was a mighty king who could command the ocean. Another king commanded the wind. They lived in peace until an argument happened. Do you know what happens when the wind and sea go to war?"  
"A lot of people die," Knuckles suggested. He really didn't like the way this was headed, but he also couldn't see Shadow's point yet. What did a fairy tale have to do with Maria's wanderings through a old laboratory?  
Shadow continued smirking, as if amused that Knuckles didn't get it. "Once upon a time, a bunch of wizards built a weapon capable of stopping the wind, the sea, the earth, and the fire. They used it to keep the peace. But this war between the wind and the sea was too much for them. They called the earth and the fire to aid them. This only made the battling kings angrier. The oceans flooded the land, driven by the wind. The earth and fire created our islands. The Ancients died. Yet the elements could not be stopped.  
"The wizards used their weapon against the Kings, the wind, and the water. They perished in the attempt, but they ended the Calamity. Their weapon was lost. And here we are."  
They walked in silence for a moment. Knuckles mulled this over, looking for the punchline. "That's it?"  
"That's it."  
"What's any of that got to do with us?"  
Shadow rolled his eyes. "You really are thick headed. Must I spell it out for you?"  
"Maybe a hint?" Knuckles said. He held back his irritation at the hedgehog's jabs. It was easier if people assumed he was an idiot.  
"What do you think sleeps at the bottom of this facility?"  
"The weapon," Knuckles said slowly.  
"Wrong," Shadow snapped. "Did you listen to a word I said?"  
Knuckles ran the story through his mind. "Some kind of king who controls the elements?"  
"You're getting warmer." Shadow adjusted his arms, folding them the other way around.  
Knuckles looked-really looked-at the water-deposited debris on the floor, barely visible in the dim light from Metal Sonic's eyes. He breathed the odor of old mold and decay. "This place was flooded," he whispered. "The water king ... is he here?"  
"No," Shadow replied, also in a whisper. "But the water he commanded is."  
"But it's alive!" Knuckles breathed. "I feel it waiting."  
Shadow nodded. "They found it and brought it here to study. But it broke out of their control. The facility was abandoned and sealed to contain it."  
Knuckles shivered and rubbed his arms. The air suddenly seemed ten degrees cooler. "So there's a monster trapped in here with us. And it knows we're here."  
Shadow nodded.  
The air continued to grow chilly and damp. The passage descended three flights of stairs, then opened into a catwalk across the cave where they had teleported in. They had come out closer to the far end and lower down. Their original catwalk looked like a tiny thread in the distance.  
Wetness clogged the air. Metal Sonic looked over the catwalk railing at the river thirty feet below them. It had a black, oily look, but it was hard to tell if it only looked that way in the darkness.  
"Softly now," Maria whispered, leading them onto the catwalk.  
The four of them tiptoed across the metal mesh flooring, trying not to clang too loudly. While Knuckles had disliked the claustrophobic hallways, he disliked this dark, open space worse. Anything could be watching them from out there. The lingering sense of the intelligent water's presence unnerved him, too.  
Then there was his growing thirst and fatigue. Nobody had mentioned it, so Knuckles kept quiet, but they had been down here a long time. Twelve hours? A day? His throat ached with dryness, and his legs ached from walking. How could Maria stand it? She had been too weak to walk that morning, yet she had been going strong for hours.  
The smell of the water tormented him. Knuckles touched the damp railing, collecting the condensation that beaded on the metal, and dripped it on his tongue. It tasted like rust and made him thirstier. He didn't look at the water below. One shouldn't drink living elements.  
They reached the other end of the catwalk without incident, other than some ominous creaking from the metal. The other end held more rooms and hallways, also damaged by flooding. Maria didn't bother with any of them. Instead, she led them down a short passage that ended at a huge metal door, like a bank vault. It even had a metal wheel used to open it. The whole thing was brown with rust.  
"This is where we need to go," Maria said.  
Shadow stepped up beside her and took her hand. "Love," he whispered, "you know where this goes?"  
"Yes, dear," she murmured. Lifting her head, she gazed at Knuckles and Metal Sonic, including them. "This door separates the laboratory facility from an Ancient factory. Beyond this door, things will become much more dangerous. The monster may await us there. I'm not certain of his location."  
Knuckles sighed. Of course it would be more dangerous. Of course she was leading them there. He raised a hand. "Why do we have to go there, again?"  
Maria's eyes glowed at him. "Because this is how we get your island back."

* * *

Tails sat on the floor of the room where the AI had trapped him. He had pulled up a flooring tile and had taken apart some of the machinery beneath, but his light had begun to flicker.  
"Ramussan?" he said into his headset.  
"Yes?" the AI replied.  
"If you really want me to fix this place, I'm going to need more light. My battery is nearly dead."  
"So that's how you did it," Ramussan mused. "I had wondered how you carried it that way. If I turn on the power, you won't be able to repair the wiring. I do want you to succeed, you know." His voice held a wistful tone.  
"Just one light?" Tails wheedled. "Surely the whole room isn't on the same circuit."  
"It isn't," Ramussan said grudgingly. One monitor flickered on, flooding the room in cold blue light. "But the area you're working on is part of the circuit connected to the lights. This is the best I can do."  
"Thanks!" Tails flicked off his light and went to look at the monitor. It displayed the same operating system as the computers upstairs. He examined the control panel until he found the ubiquitous gold plate and pressed his hand against it.  
The system logged him in at once.  
"While I have my doubts about your identity," Ramussan commented, "you begin to dispel them. Not even the invader logged in properly."  
"He's called Eggman," Tails said absently, calling up schematics for the third floor. "He went out and bought the island out from under us. He's the legal owner."  
Ramussan made an inarticulate sound of disbelief. Then he swore, colorfully and elaborately.  
Tails blinked. "Are you sure you're really an AI? They don't usually cuss like that."  
"Yes, unfortunately," Ramussan said. "Otherwise I would go up there and murder this Eggman."  
"Say, why didn't we bump into you upstairs?" Tails said. "The system never talked up there."  
"First, my systems are broken," Ramussan replied. "I can only hear the three bottom floors. Second, you are wearing a listening device that I can access. If you took it off, you would have no idea that I existed."  
"Are you powered by the Master Emerald?"  
Ramussan hesitated. "I'm not supposed to answer that question until the user is authorized."  
"You are," Tails replied with a grin. "It's the only power source this place has right now."  
Ramussan's silence only affirmed this guess.  
Tails studied the information on the third floor, then the fourth and fifth. There was no sign of the tall electronic cave in his dream. Or had it been a metaphor for his subconscious after all?  
"Hey Ram," Tails said, "is there any place on Angel Island that's kind of a tall, open space, like a cathedral, almost? Only with electronics all over the walls?"  
"Classified," Ramussan said.  
"So there totally is," Tails mused. "I just don't see it on these layouts. Is it this center area?"  
"Will you stop asking?" Ramussan growled.  
Tails laughed. "You have a lot more expression than an AI. You're like a real person."  
"Thanks a lot," Ramussan said, his voice brimming with sarcasm. "Just because I live in a computer doesn't mean I don't have feelings."  
"Cry me a river," Tails shot back. "You've trapped me in here with no tools and no parts, but you expect me to fix everything. I'm a mechanic, not a magician."  
Ramussan sighed, or made a sound very much like one. "What parts do you need?"  
Tails rattled off a list of electrical components and types of wire, as well as the tools he needed. "If you had just let Eggman's robots do their job, they would have fixed all this for you. The first two floors are working great."  
"The island's reactor is down here," Ramussan said sulkily. "No unauthorized person is supposed to touch it."  
Tails blanched. "A reactor? Like a nuclear one?"  
"It's a chaos reactor."  
These words struck Tails's ears like music. A chaos reactor! How was such a thing possible? How did it work? Was it those enormous white Tesla coils he had seen?  
"Get me parts," Tails said, "then let me see the reactor. Please!"  
"It will be tricky, but I think I can do it," Ram replied. "Standby."

* * *

Eggman returned to Angel Island, baffled and irritated that Metal Sonic was nowhere to be found. He sent robots to search the other islands, but it would take weeks. Blast that robot.  
He stomped into Angel Island's control room to find Orbot and Cubot racing from console to console, arguing.  
"What about team twenty-six? The beetles?"  
"I've lost contact with them, too! That third floor is like the Bermuda Triangle!"  
Orbot whacked Cubot on the head. "Don't be stupid! It's just some kind of island defenses!"  
"What's going on?" Eggman said.  
The robots froze and shut up. They turned to face him, slowly, taking their time.  
Orbot pointed at Cubot. "He lost two squads of robots on the third floor."  
"I did not!" Cubot shrieked. "The third floor ate them!"  
Eggman rubbed his forehead. "I should have repurposed both of you years ago. You'd make very nice food processors." He sat at his chair and tapped the keyboard, gazing into the screen.  
While he had been gone, repairs had been completed on the first floor. The second floor had reached fifty percent completed, so teams were supposed to begin surveying and repairing the third floor. While basic surveying of the floor plan had been done, there was no data on the floor's contents, parts needed, or condition. To make matters worse, two whole squads had vanished down there. Destroyed, most likely. But by what?  
"That's probably where Shadow teleported to," Eggman growled. "He's probably down there with that chaos girl, wreaking havoc and destroying things. Good. Metal Sonic will be there. I'll go down there myself."  
Orbot tugged at his sleeve. "Uh, boss, incoming transmission."  
His laptop displayed the call waiting icon. Eggman groaned. "Not now!" He accepted the call.  
A blue tigress looked out of the screen at him. "Hello, Eggman."  
"Hello, Tasha," Eggman said in a fake enthusiastic tone. "How are you?"  
The tigress's upper lip curled. "Cut the pleasantries. The chaos girl. Where is she?"  
Eggman kept a smile plastered on his face, but inwardly he snarled. He wanted that girl. She was a walking chaos elemental, and he wanted to study her and possibly weaponize her. While selling her to NME would be lucrative, he would miss out on all that delicious research and the resulting inventions.  
"She's in a safe location," Eggman replied. "Why?"  
"We are prepared to pay any price for her. Any. Price. Do you understand?"  
They were letting him name his price? He could ask for entire countries and they would give it to him. Temptation swayed him for a moment. If they wanted the girl that badly, then she must be valuable beyond his dreams. Why would he give up a creature so precious when he could mine her secrets himself? He could go into business in competition with NME, even.  
"She's not for sale," Eggman said.  
Tasha turned her head and spoke to someone off camera. She nodded, receiving an answer, and turned back to him. "Then prepare yourself, Dr. Eggman. We are coming to seize her by force. Have a nice day." She signed off.  
Eggman bared his teeth and snarled at the blank screen. "Orbot! Cubot! Summon the forces from my volcano base. They just declared war on us."  
The two robots zipped to the laptops across the room and logged into Eggman's home systems.  
"Hey boss," Cubot exclaimed. "That robot dragon is coming back. And it's carrying prisoners!"  
Eggman spun around. "What?"  
Cubot showed him drone footage. The robot dragon that had been under Metal Sonic's control was flying over Angel Island, making for the east entrance. It carried a net in its forepaws. Entangled in this net were Sonic, Amy, and Sticks.  
Eggman clapped his hands. "Excellent! They can touch all those blasted gold plates for me. Then we'll all go to the third floor together."


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm flying!" Sonic yelled over the roar of the dragon's engines. He stuck his arms through the webbing of the net like wings. "Yippee!"  
Amy glared at him and traded a glance with Sticks. "Sonic! How much pain medication did you take?"  
"A triple dose!" Sonic yelled back. "I feel fantastic!"  
Amy's lips formed the words 'a triple dose', but no sound came out. If Sonic didn't drop dead in the next hour, he would keel over in pain when the medication wore off.  
But there was no time to worry about it. The dragon's engines throttled back to a rumble. It dropped lower and lower toward the trees. Amy watched the ground in trepidation. At the same time, joy filled her heart at returning to Angel Island, no matter the conditions. Maybe that explained Sonic's exuberance. Sticks was excited, too, bouncing up and down in the net.  
"Remember the plan," Amy said.  
Sonic waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know the plan. Be prisoners. Get Eggman to let us in. When he turns his back, escape and find Tails."  
As they descended, a glint of sun on metal caught Amy's eye. She crawled higher in the net. A swarm of robots were flying in from Bygone, but they were almost hidden from sight by the mountains in the island's interior. Eggman must have summoned an army to deal with them. Her heart sank.  
The robot dragon slowed until it seemed that it would drop out of the air. Then it hovered five feet from the ground, dropped the net, and landed with a heavy thud and a jangle of metal.  
Sonic, Amy and Sticks lay tangled in the net, trying to look like helpless prisoners. The dragon stood beside them, waiting for orders. They had landed on a dirt path leading to what looked like a cave entrance, except for the remains of shattered stone doors on the ground around it. Birds sang in the nearby trees. A cool breeze fanned their faces. The island welcomed them back.  
They didn't wait long. Soon a squadron of bulky humanoid robots poured out of the cave, covering the Mobians with their laser rifles. Eggman followed on their heels. "Well well," he said, hands on his hips. "Look who it is. You were no match for my dragon, eh?"  
"Nope," Sonic said cheerfully. "Ten animals I slam in a net. That's a palindrome-it's spelled the same forward and backward. Bet you didn't know that!" He said this very fast.  
Eggman blinked at him.  
Amy said apologetically, "Ignore him. He's hopped up on meds."  
Eggman chortled. "Oh, for the burn, right! I'm glad you arrived when you did. I have a little problem on the third floor that I need you to resolve for me."  
Amy exchanged an anxious glance with Sticks. Sonic didn't notice-he couldn't be anxious about anything. He laughed instead.  
The robots approached and handcuffed each of them, then cut open the net.  
As Sonic stepped out, he chattered, "I hate handcuffs. If I try to spin dash, I'll shatter my arms."  
"That's the idea," Eggman said, stepping aside. "After you."  
Sonic, Amy and Sticks walked into the darkness of their island home. As they walked, the crystal lights flicked on automatically, drowning out the floodlights Eggman had left sitting everywhere.  
Eggman grumbled under his breath.  
The east entrance approached the main hall from a different direction, avoiding the grand staircase that the west entrance used. As they entered the main hall, Amy sighed wistfully and gazed at the stacks of boxes and equipment everywhere. "Eggman, you keep house like a kid in a college dorm."  
"I've been busy fixing everything," Eggman replied. "Sue me. That way, through the weight room. We're headed downstairs."

* * *

Knuckles followed Maria down and down a winding stone staircase, teeth set and eyes hard. He had torn through the rusted vault door by strength alone, taking it apart piece by piece until they could step through.  
Nothing would stand between him and getting Angel Island back.  
Maria led the way, flanked by Metal Sonic, until they reached the bottom of the stairs. Unlike the human facility, the Ancients had built their structures to last the ages. They entered a vast hall with a dim, arched ceiling. Green crystals burned in the walls, illuminating engraved stone pillars that supported the roof. The floor was dusty, but even centuries of dust couldn't conceal the colorful mosaic tiles that decorated the floor in spirals.  
"It's so different from the home base," Maria said, hesitating and gazing around in wonder.  
"Yeah," Knuckles said. "My people built it." He gazed proudly at the nearest pillar, which sported the likeness of a majestic echidna in a robe and crown. "Now how do we get my island back?"  
Shadow slipped up on Maria's other side and took her hand. "Wisps are pouring in through the broken door. I told you it was a bad idea."  
Knuckles looked back. Strangely-shaped creatures floated down the stairs, of all shapes and colors, but all with the same eyes. They made soft chips and coos like an aviary of birds.  
"They mean no harm." Maria closed her eyes for a moment, seeming to breathe in the atmosphere of the ruins. "I think it's ... yes, this way."  
She led them down a side passage. It led down grand hallways and through vast echoing rooms. Machines murmured in the distance for a while, then died away as Maria led them toward the outskirts.  
Shadow kept close beside Maria, never releasing her hand, watching the corners of the rooms and over his shoulder. He made Knuckles nervous. Aside from the wisps who followed them, there was no one here. It made him sad. Had all the Ancients truly perished in the Cataclysm? If Shadow's story was true, then it had been enormously bad, far beyond the scope of his imagination.  
Thirst nagged at him. Hunger was present as a weariness in his limbs, an extra weight in his feet. "When can we go home?"  
"Not long now," Maria said. "We're nearly there."  
Metal Sonic walked at Maria's other side, still providing light. He said in Knuckles's head, "There is much to salvage here. One could, perhaps, find me a voice." He nodded toward several small robots which lay in a corner.  
"Maybe," Knuckles said doubtfully. "Tails would have to do the actual machine stuff."  
He would have said more, but Maria rounded a corner and stepped into a cave of uncut stone. "Here we are."  
Knuckles, Shadow and Metal Sonic gazed around in silence. There was nothing here. It was a corner of the palace that hadn't been developed.  
Maria walked to the far wall and laid both hands on it. "This is Angel Island."  
Knuckles stared at the wall, nonplussed. "The wall?"  
Shadow glared at him. "Don't question her."  
Metal Sonic crossed the room, illuminating the wall with his eyes. As he did so, Knuckles realized that while the walls and floor of the cave were cool grey granite, the back wall was a warm shade of red-brown. "Hey. It's a different color." He walked up and touched it, too.  
A thrill raced through him, part joy, part chaos energy. His island. His home. He closed his eyes and felt the wind in the trees, the vibration of footsteps and voices, the depth of its hollow spaces, the constant presence of the Master Emerald. It seemed to be far away upon the island and yet right beside him, in the person of Maria.  
He stroked the stone lovingly. "Is there a door? Can we get onto the island here?"  
"Not here." Maria stepped back, her eyes shining, a little smile curving her lips. "We're going to raise the island."  
Shadow, Knuckles, and Metal Sonic all stared at her.  
"Raise it how?" Knuckles said cautiously.  
"Angel Island is supposed to fly," Maria explained. "Together, we have the power to lift it into the sky again, which will lead to you reclaiming it."  
"What, Eggman won't want it worse?"  
Maria laughed, a musical sound. "It will trigger a chain of events that will lead to that. Join hands." She held out her hands. Shadow took her right hand, Knuckles took her left. Metal Sonic placed a hand on her shoulder. The wisp moved to float over Maria's head.  
Maria closed her eyes. Knuckles sensed the power stir within her, flowing through the four of them like an electric current. The island's presence loomed before them. Knuckles saw it in his mind's eye: it sat on the ocean floor, and this particular cliff had penetrated the sea floor like a knife into a melon. But beneath it-  
Horrors. The malevolent presence he had sensed earlier was nearly within arm's reach. It watched their power, hungry and savage. Knuckles blinked around the cave, expecting to see it in the room with them. "Maria, there's a monster."  
"I know," she whispered, eyes closed. "He is important." Then she raised her voice and spoke aloud. "Ramussan, are you ready?"

* * *

"Not quite, Mistress," the AI replied. "Standby."  
"Who are you talking to?" Tails asked.  
The young fox had his head and shoulders inside the shell of a deactivated beetle robot. The little control room was strewn with half-disassembled robots and tools. Ramussan had guided an entire squadron straight to Tails, and they had been equipped with tools to repair machinery.  
The doors were still closed, but Tails had ceased worrying about that. The excitement of solving a problem held him in its grip. This room controlled the chaos reactor. Once he fixed the corroded parts so that the computer network functioned again, the reactor could power up. Ramussan had hacked a second squadron of robots and was using them to repair the reactor itself. His animosity had diminished greatly. While he hadn't yet freed his prisoner, they were rapidly becoming friends. At least they weren't enemies.  
"You have a mistress?" Tails said, pulling his head out of the robot with grease on the tips of his ears. "I thought you would serve the guardian and crew."  
"I wasn't talking to you," Ramussan said absently, as if his attention was fixed elsewhere.  
Tails stripped out the necessary chips and dove into a wide hole in the floor, where he soldered it into four exposed wires. As he did, his brain chewed on the idea of Ramussan answering to a female. The solution occurred to him within a minute. "You're talking about Maria."  
"Maria, yes," Ramussan said. "Your knowledge of her unlocks further tables of data. What do you already know?"  
"That she was hooked to the Master Emerald for fifty years," Tails replied, eyes on the glowing strip of metal and his soldering gun. "That she has crazy chaos powers. That Shadow's basically her bodyguard."  
"Yes," Ramussan said, as if pondering this information. "She spoke to me through the Master Emerald for many years. She continues to do so."  
"What did she say to you just now?"  
"She asks if I am ready. We need the reactor back online before I can aid her."  
"Aid her? Is she in trouble?"  
"No. We are." The lit monitor changed to show an active map. A swarm of red and gray dots moved onto the third floor. "I detect four lifeforms and twenty-five robots."  
"Four lifeforms?" Tails pulled his head out of the hole and squinted at the screen. "Can you zoom in?"  
The map enlarged. The lifeforms showed only red outlines, but it was detailed enough for Tails to recognize them. "It's my friends! Sonic, Amy and Sticks! And Eggman."  
"He appears to have taken them prisoner," Ramussan said.  
Tails gazed at the figures, the way they walked with arms behind them, the way Eggman sauntered behind them. "I think you're right. What do we do?"  
"How close are you to finishing repairs?"  
Tails dove back into the hole and his soldering. "I'm just hooking up a new communication array which should allow the two halves of the room talk to each other. That will get the computers online. I don't know if their software will work, though."  
"Leave that to me," Ramussan said, sounding pleased. "You pulled that off faster than I expected."  
"It only needed a couple of new parts," Tails replied, grinning. "And ten feet of new copper wire. What else does the reactor need?"  
"It's ninety percent repaired. My robots are rebalancing the heat rods now. Then they will have to repair the insulation."  
"What's the reactor's fuel source?" Tails asked, studying the map screen as his friends drew closer. "Probably not uranium, right?"  
Ramussan groaned. "Stop asking questions that have classified answers."  
This meant that Tails was getting warmer. "Chaos crystal?" he pressed. "A chaos emerald?"  
"Don't ask," Ramussan said. "Just ... don't ask. I'm mostly certain you're actually island crew, but the remaining uncertainty requires that I not answer certain questions."  
"You're no fun." Tails pointed at the screen. "Is Eggman bringing them here? They're going into the reactor room."  
"Yes, the invader seems intent on using them to gain access to the facility. He logged into the system using the Warrior's code ten minutes ago. I thought it strange at the time."  
"Sonic," Tails whispered. "Why did you let him in?"  
"You're certain these are island crew?"  
"Yes, Sonic is the warrior, Amy is the manager, and Sticks is the seer."  
"But no Guardian," Ramussan said sadly. "Why hasn't he come?"  
"He's with Maria."  
"Oh." Ramussan brightened. "That puts a new spin on things. Shall I kill the invader for you?"  
Tails hesitated. It sounded so tempting. One little whoosh, and Eggman would be out of their lives forever. But that would make Tails an accomplice to murder. A prison sentence would put such a damper on his life.  
"No," he said. "He has to stay alive. Can you separate him from the others? Like, what if you hijacked his robots?"  
Ramussan was silent for several seconds. "Curses. He wears a device of the Ancients that repeatedly pings nearby robots with a slave command. I can't get through long enough to seize control."  
Tails sighed. "He has Lyric's device that controls robots."  
"Lyric?" Ramussan said in a very small voice. "What do you know of Lyric?"  
"He was a big ugly snake in a power suit," Tails replied. "We killed him. Don't worry about it."  
"You killed him?" Ramussan shrieked. "He was one of the most brilliant mechanical minds of the Ancient world!"  
"He was a maniac," Tails replied, feeling a little uncomfortable. "He was trying to use time travel to take over the world."  
"So he had a few flaws," Ramussan admitted. "He helped design Angel Island, and by extension, me. Excuse me if I'm a little upset."  
"He helped design ...?" Tails began. No wonder the island had so much brain interface stuff. That had been Lyric's specialty.  
"Anyway," Tails said, changing the subject, "how're we going to rescue my friends?"  
"I'll fix the reactor," Ramussan replied. "Wait and see what Maria has planned."

* * *

Knuckles held Maria's delicate hand in his own big mitt, gazing at the wall that was Angel Island. They were about to do a big, impressive thing. Why did he feel so tired and thirsty?  
On Maria's other side, Shadow swiped a hand across his eyes. "Since we're waiting, maybe we could sit down."  
So Shadow was feeling it, too.  
"All right," Maria replied, and they all sank down to sit on the stone floor. Metal Sonic remained standing-he didn't grow tired.  
Knuckles looked at Maria. "How are you able to do this?"  
"My connection with the Master Emerald will allow us to raise the island," Maria replied.  
"That's not what I meant," Knuckles replied. "I mean walk for so long. Aren't you tired and weak?"  
Shadow cast him a silent, patronizing look, as if this were the most idiotic question he'd ever heard.  
Maria only smiled. "You and Shadow have been healing me. You will both need rest when we are finished. I apologize-my drawing power from you is not without cost."  
"Is that why we're so tired and thirsty?"  
"Yes."  
Knuckles relaxed. If his discomfort was helping her, then he could put up with it a little longer. He tried to ignore the tense, waiting presence of the unseen monster. It was so near, yet he couldn't tell where it was. Perhaps there was a room nearby where it lay imprisoned.  
The wisp floated down from Maria's shoulder and frisked about the floor, floating and doing flips and twirls. Shadow cringed whenever it neared him.  
"Shadow," Knuckles said, "why are these wisps so frightening?"  
"Yes, Shadow," Maria said unexpectedly. "Why do you fear them so? I always thought they were sweet."  
"They have a power," Shadow said in a low voice. "It's different from chaos energy. The scientists called it hyper-go-on. It combines with the latent chaos energy in their surroundings to do ... things."  
Knuckles listened, watching the wisp, as Maria said, "What things?"  
"They get inside your body," Shadow whispered. "Just melt into your chest. And they ... change you."  
A tingle of horror crept through Knuckles. "What do you mean, change you?"  
Shadow rubbed the white patch of fur on his chest. "They transform you. No limbs. Just consciousness inside a new shape of their choosing. A Mobian can come back from it ... maybe. But they tried to merge with humans, and it ... and they ..." He stammered to a halt.  
"It doesn't work on humans?" Knuckles finished.  
Shadow shook his head. "They partially transform. They can't return to their former shape."  
Those simple words painted images in Knuckles's head that he didn't want and couldn't help seeing.  
"It killed the wisp, too," Shadow whispered. "They couldn't leave their dying host."  
Maria stroked Shadow's spiky head. "My dear, you must have been so frightened. No wonder you're afraid of them."  
He gripped her hand. "I feared that one of them might try it on you."  
Maria smiled sadly. "I'm not human anymore, love. Like a fossil, I still have a human shape, but the rest is chaos energy."  
"What does that mean?" Knuckles blurted. "That you're not human."  
Maria gazed at him, eyebrows drawn together. "You and Shadow hunger and thirst. I don't. I've taken nourishment and strength directly from your own chaos energy. I apologize again-I didn't realize that I was doing it for a long time. In the future I shall have better control."  
"So," Knuckles said slowly, trying to grasp this, "you don't need to eat or drink. So you're ... immortal?"  
Maria smiled. "Possibly. I do know that death seems far away and ... improbable."  
"So you could probably handle a wisp."  
Maria gazed at the wisp as it played. "I could probably take on any shape I desired without their power. A wisp knows better than to touch me. This one has fed off my energy a little, but mainly I believe that it's lonely."  
"Lonely for death," Shadow spat. "Lonely for blood and suffering. Don't trust them, love. They're evil beyond imagining."  
Knuckles watched the wisp, too. "If they're bad, I don't think they mean it. Now, the monster right here. He's evil."  
"He's angry," Maria replied. "A being such as he knows only justice and injustice. He was treated very unjustly indeed." She opened her mouth to say more, but turned her head as if listening. "Ramussan is ready." She floated to her feet as if gravity were a mere suggestion.  
Knuckles and Shadow jumped up, too.  
"Who's Ramussan?" Knuckles said.  
"A computer," Maria replied. "Focus on Angel Island and press upward."  
Knuckles closed his eyes. Where before he had sensed the quiet power of the Master Emerald and the tranquility of the forests, now a star blazed in the island's heart. It burned into Knuckles's being and made him gasp, then laugh. "What is that light?"  
"The chaos reactor is working," Maria said.


	11. Chapter 11

Sonic had only submitted to touching the login panel for Eggman because Amy and Sticks both nodded that it was okay. Even walking along through the darkness with Eggman at his back, he worried about what he'd done. Of course, if Eggy was down here, he wasn't upstairs stealing secrets.  
The medication flowed in his blood and altered his brain chemistry, blocking pain impulses. His burn still itched a little. At the back of his mind he knew that it hurt quite a lot and that he would pay for this later.  
They walked through the hexagonal room with the pillar of conduits in the middle. Then they arrived at the three doors that Tails had mentioned. It was totally weird to see them exactly as they had looked on the map.  
"Which way did the fox go?" Eggman said. "I know you know, hedgehog."  
"Left," Sonic said. "I think it gets scary narrow, though."  
"I'll be the judge of that," Eggman said.  
Amy muttered out of the corner of her mouth, "Is it high up?"  
"Tails couldn't see the bottom," Sonic muttered to her.  
Amy bit her lower lip. She'd always had trouble with heights.  
Sonic led the way through the left hand door. It was a black void inside with a few tiny mysterious lights in the distance. He slid one foot from side to side. The floor was two feet wide. With his hands cuffed, he couldn't feel for a railing.  
Tails was in there somewhere. Beneath the jovial medication-mood, worry gnawed him. A bloodthirsty computer had taken him hostage, and who knew what it might be doing to him.  
"Stop talking in my head," Sticks muttered.  
Since this was something she complained about often, Sonic ignored her. He edged forward into the darkness.  
Eggman came up behind and played his flashlight about. It illuminated a narrow stone bridge without a handrail that spanned a huge space. The light faintly illuminated more conduits along the walls as well as a white thing in the distance like a coiled snake.  
"Those are my robots," Eggman said, squinting at the distant lights that clustered around the coil. "I thought that squadron had been lost?"  
"Looks like they're doing their job," Sonic remarked, edging along the walkway. Amy followed him, silent, but with her mouth clamped shut. Behind her came Sticks, shaking her head as if a fly bothered her. Eggman followed her, and his robots followed him. In single file they set off across the bridge.  
"Tails says hi," Sticks said.  
Sonic halted. "What?"  
Sticks held her ears. "They keep talking in my head! Tails and Ramussan! They say to get to the other side before the reactor starts or we might die."  
"Reactor?" Sonic stared toward the coils in the distance. "Come on, everybody!" He hurried toward the far wall, which had windows and a door in it.  
"A reactor?" Eggman exclaimed. "Excellent! I had wondered at the wisdom of using the Master Emerald as a power source. It would make a much better focusing crystal."  
"Run!" Sticks cried, pushing Amy ahead of her.  
Glancing back, Sonic realized that Sticks was no longer handcuffed. Moreover, she was guiding Amy with her hands on Amy's cuffs, probably picking the lock. If anybody would know how to escape handcuffs, it was Sticks.  
The walkway was clear of obstruction, although one section has been burned black as if an electrical cable had fallen across it. The door in the wall stood ajar. Sonic kicked it open and dove inside. Amy, Sticks and Eggman followed. The door slammed behind them by itself. Blinding light blazed through the windows. A deep hum vibrated the glass, reverberating through the floor and walls.  
Sticks touched Sonic's wrists. "Hold still," she whispered. Amy stood nearby, rubbing her wrists and holding her open handcuffs so they wouldn't make a sound.  
Eggman paid no attention. He rushed to a window and stared out, his glasses protecting his eyes. "Amazing! While it's been rumored that the Ancients had chaos reactors, nobody has ever found one!"  
The handcuffs clicked open. Sticks pulled them off and Sonic massaged his wrists with a relieved sigh. Wearing strips of metal around your wrists really hurt after a while.  
The next thing to do was to disarm Eggman. Sonic walked up to him and yanked the pistol out of his hand. "You won't need this anymore."  
Eggman spun around and realized that he was locked in a room with four enemies and no robots. In fact, the robots that had tried to follow them down the walkway were currently on fire.  
"You wouldn't hurt a little old Eggman, would you?"  
"Nope," Sonic said, flicking open the handcuffs. "Hold out your wrists."  
He cuffed Eggman, relishing the turning of the tables. "That ought to keep you out of trouble for a few minutes."  
The glow of the reactor dimmed a little, darkening the room. Sonic turned to Sticks. "Where's Tails?"  
"Locked in a room down a hallway full of deadly traps," Sticks replied. She pointed to the room's second door. "That way."  
Sonic opened it and charged down the hall. His feet scattered robot parts, and light shone through the long, narrow windows. If the AI wanted to throw things at him, he'd have to cope with Sonic's speed.  
Nothing happened, however. Sonic reached the end of the hall and slapped the door's gold panel. It opened. Inside, Tails spun around and beamed at him. "Sonic! You're okay!"  
Sonic braced one foot in the door to hold it open. "Glad you're safe, little bro. Let's get you out of here."  
"But I'm fixing it!" Tails waved a hand at the room. The floor was covered in broken robots, parts, and tools. The only area that wasn't cluttered was a hole in the floor filled with orderly bundles of wire. It looked dangerously electronic.  
"Fixing what, exactly?"  
"This is the reactor control room! Ramussan just turned it on and now everything will work!" Tails pressed one hand to his headset, frowning. "He also says to hang on."  
Sonic braced himself in the doorway. "Why, what's hap-"  
The vibration was gentle at first. It hummed through the walls and floor as if the reactor was warming up. But it grew and grew to outright shaking. The walls rocked.  
"Earthquake?" Sonic yelled over the noise.  
"Launch!" Tails yelled back.

* * *

Knuckles, Shadow, and Metal Sonic clustered around Maria, who stood with her arms outstretched. Knuckles gripped her hand, power swirling through them like batteries, siphoning into Maria. Her power streamed outward, into that red wall of rock before them.  
And the wall began to rise. Inch by inch, it slid upward, grinding against the other stone, raining dust and pebbles onto the group at its foot. It was a colossal behemoth of a task-Maria was lifting a land mass. And yet she was doing it, her face holding an enraptured expression, as if she had gone back into that trance.  
Stone rumbled far overhead, cracking and splitting. Knuckles heard it, felt it. His awareness included not only his own body, but the island, too. It was cemented to the ocean floor by years of sea growth. Lifting it required breaking all those anchors. Each new crack sent shudders through the island, shaking the occupants like earthquakes.  
/Sorry, Knuckles said silently. It won't be much longer.  
His companions glowed beside him, as open to him as the island was. He tried not to look at them, tried to focus on the island, but their unrest drew his attention.  
Metal Sonic's mind was being altered. He fidgeted, shifting his weight, red eyes blinking on and off. The raw, unchecked power, flowing straight from the Master Emerald, had turned his trickle of restored data into a flood. In Knuckles's head he said, "You destroyed me. I told you how."  
"Yeah, duh," Knuckles muttered.  
"I was forced to turn against you all. Eggman took all of my data. I burned Sonic. I attacked you." He sounded appalled at himself. "My team. My friends. It was wrong."  
"Yeah, well, hazards of being a robot," Knuckles said with a grin.  
Maria brushed him with power. "Focus."  
Knuckles tried. Metal Sonic's rising anguish beside him was a little distracting, sure. But a new wave of fear radiated from Shadow. It was so strong that Knuckles glanced at him.  
The black hedgehog's red stripes glowed like neon, empowered by the power working. Sweat beaded on his muzzle. His eyes were closed, his mind focused on the island, but fear leaked around the edges. Fear of water. Fear of loss.  
Water! Knuckles gazed anxiously at the wall rising before them. The island rested on the sea floor, right? Once it was out of the way, all that water would come crashing down on their heads.  
As if she read this thought, Maria said, "Give me a little credit. I can hold back the sea long enough to chaos control to safety."  
Knuckles relaxed. Chaos control was their escape rope. They'd be fine as long as they stayed together.  
The island kept rising, faster and faster. Water trickled in through the cracks. Maria thrust a palm at it and it stopped. She smiled. "See?"

* * *

The shaking, rattling island was especially bad underground. Sonic barely held on to the doorway, trying to ride it out.  
"Sonic!" someone called, barely audible over the noise.  
Sonic turned. Amy and Sticks were halfway along the trapped hallway, stumbling over broken robots and staggering against the walls.  
"Come on!" Sonic yelled. "You're almost there!"  
Tails appeared at his side, eyes wide. "Sonic! Ram said that the supports on this hall are about to give way!"  
Sonic's heart skipped a beat. He beckoned furiously to the girls. "Hold the door!" he shouted to Tails. With Tails in the doorway, Sonic dashed back to Amy and Sticks.  
Or he tried. The hallway bucked like a rubber hose, throwing him back and forth. It sagged in the middle, too. "It's going to collapse!" Sonic yelled, grabbing Sticks's arm. He towed her to safety in Tails's cluttered room, then went back for Amy.  
The floor sloped downhill in the middle of the hallway. All the broken robot parts had slid into the dip, burying Amy to the knees. She struggled through them, panting and wide-eyed. Sonic waded to her through the junk. The hallway was settling, the metal groaning and creaking.  
Amy grabbed his hand like a drowning swimmer. "Hurry!"  
As he pulled her out of the parts, his burn twinged. _Aw heck, not now._  
Sonic pulled her up the rapidly increasing slope, panting, laboring, feet slipping on the concrete. It was full of cracks now, large cracks that widened every second. He forced his legs to run faster, harder. He had run up vertical buildings before-he could beat this-it was only a forty degree slope-  
The hedgehogs had almost made it to the shelter of the doorway when the island gave a particularly nasty jerk. The hallway broke loose of its moorings and began to fall. Sonic exerted himself, and with a yell of determination, leaped out of the collapsing tunnel and caught the edge of the doorway with one hand. The other hand still gripped Amy's wrist. She swung after him, smacking the wall with her shoulder and hip. She screamed.  
Tails and Sticks grabbed his hand from above, helping him hold on.  
"I know!" Tails yelled. He disappeared into the room for a moment, then reappeared with a coil of wire around one shoulder. With a pair of pliers he bent it into a series of loops, like a rope ladder, then secured one end around a conduit in the floor.  
"Any day now!" Sonic gasped. Supporting his own weight with one arm and holding Amy with the other was stretching his burn in a horrible way. Was his skin actually tearing, or was he imagining it?  
Amy caught the end of the wire rope ladder and climbed it like a squirrel, swinging back and forth. Sonic caught it after she went by and slowly, tortuously, climbed to safety. The burn wasn't bleeding, but the strenuous activity had broken through the medication's weakening pain barrier.  
He rolled onto the floor of Tails's prison, kicking broken robots aside, and lay there panting. The burn was once more a constant presence, riding his chest, filling his senses, deafening his ears with alarm bells.  
The door slid shut. Nobody noticed.


	12. Chapter 12

The island slowly floated out of the ocean, held back by its own massive inertia and the weight of the water. The forests swayed. The sea poured off in white waterfalls, revealing the cliffs and contours that had been submerged for centuries. The island climbed higher, and higher, more and more of it emerging like a butterfly from a cocoon.  
As it struggled for altitude, the chaos energy supporting it sent out shockwaves like invisible tsunamis. The Master Emerald flashed in its sacred cave. The reactor surged.  
Hundreds of miles away, a small group of people rose from their chairs, turning to face the direction of Angel Island.  
"They already launched it," Tasha growled. She snapped her fingers at one of her companions. "Rouge. Your mission begins early."  
The white bat smiled, baring sharp teeth.  
The great airship they occupied slowly turned about until it faced due east. Its engines roared to life, driving it toward its prey. Its commanders rushed to the bridge, salivating at the taste of so much power.  
Angel Island would not occupy the sky alone for long.

* * *

Maria felt their attention lock onto her and she screamed.  
Through her, Knuckles, Shadow and Metal Sonic felt it, too. A web of interconnected minds, hungry, fueled by lust and greed, focused on them with the intensity of a laser. It was distant, but it had sensed the island's launch and was coming for them.  
The red wall of the island had slid up and up, faster and faster, until it was gone. In its place was water that Maria held at bay, as if her power was aquarium glass.  
As their enemies reached for them, her will wavered. The water buckled toward them. It trickled across the floor.  
Knuckles stepped into the breach, took up Maria's power, pulled it around him like a thick cloak and wielded it against the water. The sheer weight pressed on him, bending his elbows and knees, forcing him downward. Even the Master Emerald could not restrain the enormity of the ocean.  
Along with Maria's power, Knuckles felt Mecha's unrest and Shadow's resistance. The black hedgehog held his own power back, hoarding it like a miser, snarling inside himself.  
The negative emotion attracted something. It moved inside the wall of water. An immense glowing yellow eye moved into sight, peering at them with the cold interest of a hunting shark.  
The Other.  
Its mind touched them, circled them, considering each of them and the web of minds they feared. Knuckles held still, trying to breathe, trying not to show fear.  
Maria slowly straightened, Shadow supporting her arm. "They know already," she whispered. "So quickly. We must be ready." She gazed at the yellow eye. It locked on her, the pupil contracting.  
"Justice will be done, my friend," she told it. "I have not the strength just now."  
A whisper in their minds. "Justice." It rose to a head-splitting roar. "You speak to me of JUSTICE?"  
The eye closed and something the size of a building swirled away outside.  
"He is preparing to attack," Maria breathed. "Shadow, take us away from here!"  
Shadow cast Knuckles a tiny sideways glance, that same snarl in his heart. Knuckles didn't realize what it meant until he noticed that he had released Maria's hand in his attempt to hold back the water.  
"Chaos control!"  
Shadow, Maria, and Metal Sonic vanished. Their power went with them. Knuckles stood there, alone, stripped of Maria's protection, unable to hold up the sea by himself.  
The wisp flung itself into his arms as the water crashed toward them. Knuckles half-turned to run as the sea engulfed him.  
The wisp melted into his body like a ghost.  
In mid-stride Knuckles changed into a bolt of crimson lightning. The world slowed to a crawl. He exploded out of the water in a flash of red light and blasted back into the underground palace. It seemed to him that he moved at his normal running speed, but he didn't seem to touch the ground. The wisp pulsed in his chest like a second heart, filling him with alien hyper-go-on energy that dragged his chaos energy into a new form.  
Upward. He had to go upward. Knuckles flashed up staircases and ramps, climbing walls, using stone fixtures as stairs, climbing to the highest point in the ruin. His body didn't require oxygen, but he sensed that the wisp could not power him forever.  
He reached the uppermost ceiling and halted on a tiny ledge. There the wisp phased out of him, becoming solid once more, and flopped on the stone.  
Knuckles found himself kneeling, gasping as if he had actually run all the way. He was whole! That had been amazing. Shadow had been wrong. Shadow-  
Shadow had left him to die.  
Knuckles clenched his fists against the cold stone, red heat washing through his body. He roared his fury, awakening echoes throughout the empty halls of the Ancients. The sound was lost in the crashing of water as the ocean poured in a hundred stories below. And more than the ocean-one wave in particular swirled here and there among the pillars and rooms, against the current, seeking him.  
The Other had come with its thirst for revenge.

* * *

Shadow, Maria, and Metal Sonic appeared in daylight on the beach at Bygone Island.  
The daylight was blinding, but the fresh air was delicious. Maria inhaled deeply, eyes closed. Then, without looking, she slapped Shadow across the face.  
Shadow recoiled-he couldn't open his eyes yet, either, and hadn't seen it coming. "What was that for?"  
"You left him to die," Maria snarled. "Mean. Cowardly. Cruel. How can I face the Other if a traitor stands at my side?" The authority in her voice left no room for argument. Shadow said nothing, but held the mark on his face.  
Metal Sonic lifted his head, eyes already adjusted. To Maria he said, /I believe I know an exit to those ruins.  
"Go," she said. "Save him. He is the Guardian and he must not die."  
Metal Sonic rocketed away into the sky.  
Maria turned her attention back to Shadow. "You and I must have words."  
Shadow cowered.

* * *

Eggman pulled off the handcuffs and stuck them in a pocket. Then he walked from window to window in the little computer room, gazing out the windows.  
After the earthquake-or whatever it had been-everything had gone still and quiet. The lights were on, the computers running. The reactor now lay in the center of the enormous room for all to see: an enormous coil of white metal and optical cable, fed by conduits like stone pillars, its delicate workings shielded from mortal eyes by great domes of insulating ceramic. Eight control towers surrounded it. Eggman occupied one, the rodents another. The other control towers stood empty, some still connected by the hallways on stilts. It was bad luck that the one connecting towers two and three had collapsed. The one connecting four and five had fallen apart years ago, only a series of supports showing where it had been.  
Let the rodents rot in their control tower. The prison suited them. He had better things to do, like examining the new effects the active reactor had on the island's systems.  
Opening the door took a little figuring out. He had to access the computer and override the door lock. Then it was a quick walk back across the stone bridge, hoping the reactor didn't irradiate him too badly.  
Eggman arrived at the first floor control room a few minutes later, puffing like a bellows. Orbot and Cubot greeted him with delight. "Hey, boss! Glad to see you alive! You'll never believe what happened!"  
"The reactor activated?" Eggman said, helping himself to a chair.  
Cubot threw both arms in the air. "The island is flying!"  
"Flying?" Eggman said in disbelief. He called up drone cameras on the eight screens.  
Eight beautiful views of a floating island flashed on screen. It was hovering about a mile above the ocean, suspended in midair, supported by nothing.  
Eggman braced himself against the console and gaped, speechless. "How is this possible?"  
"We don't know!" Orbot exclaimed. "It breaks the laws of physics."  
"You know, there was that earthquake after the reactor came on," Eggman mused, sitting back in his chair. "Maybe the reactor powers whatever mechanism allows for hovering. That explains the weight room-it stabilizes the island. Ingenious."  
"There's something else we need to show you," Cubot added.  
The two robots pressed keys and pulled up a radar sweep. "This is the feed from that new array the robots installed last night," Orbot said. "We were testing it, and ... well, we picked up this."  
The green line swept across the image, highlighting dim outlines of Bygone Island and its neighboring islands. But at the edge of the sweep, at the mainland, there was an enormous ship-thing headed toward them.  
Eggman studied it in silence.  
"It's flying at eight thousand feet, boss," Cubot said. "We didn't pick it up until after launch. It's headed this way."  
They waited, watching Eggman anxiously. Their creator sat in ominous silence, one hand rubbing his chin, gazing at that flying ship. Then he tapped keys and called up maps of Angel Island. He studied them, still without speaking.  
When Eggman stopped talking, that meant that he was either terribly angry or terribly focused. This was the latter. Strategies and calculations flowed through his head at the speed of thought.  
"It's NME," he said at last. "Tasha is coming to take the chaos girl, even though I don't have her. Likely she'll take the island, too."  
"What do we do?" Orbot asked, subdued.  
Eggman tapped his lower lip, then got up and paced. Occasionally he gestured, as if about to speak, then shook his head and resumed pacing. After a while he returned to the computers, pulled up Angel Island's floor plans, and studied them.  
"I can't defend it," he said at last. "Angel Island has too many entrances. I overcame Sonic's defenses, and NME will overcome mine. Not enough of the island's systems are online. We have to go back to my old base."  
"Wait a minute," said a voice. "You can't leave."  
Eggman spun around. Standing in the doorway was Knuckles, his red fur soaking wet, water dripping from his dreadlocks. Beside him stood Metal Sonic, water beading his blue metal.  
"Where did you come from?" Eggman growled. "And where's that chaos girl?"  
"Shadow left me to die," Knuckles growled. "He took her and left. And now you're abandoning Angel Island? After you stole it from us? I don't think so."  
"There was no theft involved," Eggman retorted. "I bought the island legally."  
Knuckles pointed at him. "I heard you. NME is coming to take the island. You're running away. What are you going to do? Sue them?"  
"Do you have a better idea?" Eggman said. "You don't know what they're capable of."  
Knuckles drew himself up, lifting his chin. "Deed me the island."  
Eggman gave a bark of laughter. "Ha! Deed you a broken-down wreck of an island? Deed you a floating land mass that you can't escape from? Deed you NME's target so they can destroy you all? Orbot, get me the paperwork."  
As Eggman filled out the deed transfer form, he growled, "And where have you been, Metal Sonic?"  
The robot said nothing. He didn't stir from Knuckles's side.  
Eggman looked at him sideways. "They reprogrammed you again, didn't they? You blasted turncoat."  
Metal Sonic said nothing.  
Eggman shook his pen at him. "I can replace you with a better robot. A robot nobody will ever hack because it won't use leaky Ancient parts. I'll have it destroy you."  
Knuckles took the pen. "He's mine, Eggman. Mess with him, you mess with me."  
"With all of us," said a new voice.  
Sonic, Tails, Sticks, and Amy stepped into sight. They were dusty, bruised, tired, but their eyes gleamed with defiance.  
Sonic pointed at the paperwork. "Now hurry up and finish that so we can all sign it."  
Eggman did. One by one, the Mobians signed their names to the deed of ownership, even Metal Sonic.  
"Good riddance," Eggman said, handing Knuckles the file full of papers. "Now you get to pay taxes and all that dismal junk. You also have a mega corporation coming to destroy you. I'll just be going, shall I?"

* * *

Eggman left in a cloud of robots. The army he had summoned escorted him back to his volcano base.  
Knuckles barely spoke to his friends. As soon as Eggman was gone, he made a beeline for the Master Emerald.  
It still glowed in its chamber, unharmed. The uncut stone walls, the polished marble floor, the soft green glow like sunlight through spring leaves-all of it comforted Knuckles, easing away his worries he had carried for so long.  
He climbed the pedestal, spread his arms as wide as he could across the emerald's top, and rested his cheek against the cool transparent stone. He was finally home. The island was theirs. Eggman was gone.  
The Master Emerald lapped him with its power, welcoming, healing. It felt like Maria. Closing his eyes, he felt no difference between the gem and the girl. Given the choice, he'd take the gem. It didn't warp him to strange places, tell him terrible things, or commune with monsters.  
Shadow's betrayal stuck in his heart like a shard of glass. Somehow it conflated with Sonic's earlier rejection. The two wounds were so similar, both given by hedgehogs. He didn't want to face the pain, didn't want to face the threat of NME, didn't want to do anything except lie there, draped across the Master Emerald.  
The door to the chamber opened a little and Amy stepped in. Her footsteps climbed the altar until she stood beside him. Her warm hand touched his shoulder. "Are you all right?"  
"Yeah." Knuckles didn't move.  
"Where did you go?"  
He lifted his head a little. Amy's pink spines were rumpled, her usually immaculate clothing stained and dirty. She had been through garbage, too. Maybe they all had.  
He propped himself up on his elbows, keeping his hands on the immense gem. "Maria took us to an underground lab where she and Shadow used to live. Creepy crap down there. Then she took us to an Ancient palace. We raised the island from there. But it released this monster thing. It wants justice. Then Shadow just-just left me there. Metal Sonic came back, showed me a way out."  
"You went deep," Amy murmured. "I felt it when you all teleported."  
Knuckles nodded. It felt good to talk to a neutral party, someone he could trust.  
Amy gave his shoulder a little shake. "Come get some food. After that, rest."  
Food and rest both sounded excellent. Knuckles finally released the Master Emerald. "What do we have?"


	13. Chapter 13

Sonic ate a little, but he was in too much pain to have much appetite. He lay in his bunk in the crew wing, wrapped in a blanket, a slow fever burning inside him. It centered in the line across his chest. The strenuous activity had split the skin at several points, making it weep water and pus.  
Of all the stupid ways to die. Sonic groaned and tried to find a comfortable position. He'd survive this. He'd had worse. Good grief, they had the island back. He didn't have time to be sick like this.  
The door opened and Knuckles came in. He crashed on the bunk opposite Sonic's and heaved a sigh.  
"So, you're back from walkabout," Sonic said, clenching his teeth so they wouldn't chatter.  
"Yep." Knuckles put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "Amy says you're pretty sick."  
"A bit."  
Silence hung between them for a moment. Sonic had time to recall the bitter things he had said at their last meeting. It seemed so long ago, so short-sighted.  
"I notice you signed the deed," Knuckles said.  
"Yeah, duh," Sonic replied.  
"Odd thing to do for somebody who told me they quit."  
"I changed my mind."  
"Oh really." Knuckles didn't say any more. The silence stretched longer and longer.  
Finally, Sonic couldn't stand it. "Okay, I was wrong," he said in a rush. "I shouldn't have said all that crap to you. I was picking a fight."  
"I noticed," Knuckles said dryly.  
"When you left, we had to fight Eggman without you. It sucked. We needed you back."  
"Thanks," Knuckles said. "Don't get in my face like that again, okay? These NME people scared off Eggman. He thinks they'll kill us. I need you on my side."  
"Believe me, I won't do that again," Sonic said. "I have a lot of time to regret stuff when I'm stuck in bed."  
Knuckles got up and held out a headset. "Here. At least you can keep up with what's going on around here."  
Sonic took it and stuck it on, touched. "Thanks! I had to leave behind Amy's cool laptop. It had this dispatch program that did awesome stuff."  
"She thinks she can set you up in the island control room," Knuckles said, cracking a smile for the first time. "She's working on it now."  
"Cool!"  
"I'm headed to my room now. Get some rest."  
Knuckles departed. Sonic cycled through the channels on his headset, happier than he'd felt in days, and listened to Amy, Sticks and Tails in the control room. Their conversation consisted of, "Yeah. Click that. Okay. There. Next disk."  
Idly Sonic cycled through the channels again. Fiddling with it kept his mind off the pain.  
He happened across two voices speaking, one of which he had never heard before.  
"They all check out now, even you. I'm island security, you know. I consider everyone an invader until they prove their identity."  
The second voice was flatter, like a text to speech program. "There is much I still do not understand. My hands have altered. My functions. My data. All of it changed."  
"It's not changed, I assure you," said Ramussan, sounding just as pleasant as he had when telling Tails that he planned to kill him. "The Ancient robot your chipset was stolen from was intended for a medical facility. I can't imagine why anyone would take one of those and turn it into a machine meant for fighting and killing. Maybe it was all he had to work with."  
"Hey, Ramussan, who are you talking to?" Sonic said.  
"Hello, Sonic," Ramussan replied. "Nice to hear from you again. I'm conversing with Metal Sonic."  
"So that's what you sound like," Sonic said. "Hi, Metal Sonic."  
"Hello, Sonic." The robot sounded subdued. "I returned to my Master, and it has restored my memories. Yet it restored more than I know. I am ... Ancient."  
"Yeah, what's that mean?" Sonic said. "Eggman just built you over some other robot?"  
Ramussan spoke up. "The Ghost is quite interesting. He knows things both modern and ancient. For the first time in three centuries, I have someone to talk to."  
"Sonic." Metal Sonic's flat inflection changed, becoming more urgent. "I burned you badly. Has it healed?"  
"Not really," Sonic replied, looking down at the red-stained bandage. "I mean, it would if I just let it heal, but I move around too much."  
"I am coming to investigate."  
"No, really, it's fine," Sonic protested. Being alone in a room with Metal Sonic while too weak to defend himself was a really bad idea.  
"He intends to help, mighty Warrior," Ramussan reassured him. "You need not fear the Ghost any longer."  
"Like I should trust you," Sonic snapped. "You held Tails hostage and threatened him."  
Ramussan made a sound like a sigh coupled with a groan. "I'm island security. It's my job. You've all proved your identity now."  
The door opened and Metal Sonic stepped in. He closed it softly and stood there, gazing at Sonic with his ferocious red eyes. The sculpted metal of his head and limbs, the jet engine in his torso, the very sleek shape of him screamed danger and death to Sonic. Sonic sat very still.  
"Your temperature is elevated," Metal Sonic observed. "The danger of such burns is infection."  
"What are you going to do?" Sonic said. "Burn me again?"  
"Would you permit me to examine the wound?"  
Sonic shielded the bandage with one hand. "Maybe." When the robot simply stood there and made no threatening moves, Sonic carefully peeled the bandage away.  
The burn was a deep, angry red, with swollen red skin around it. The touch of the air made it ache that much more.  
Sonic glared down at it. "See what you did to me?"  
Metal Sonic said nothing for a long moment. Only his eyes moved, studying the wound from a distance. Then he stepped forward. "I must examine it closer. I shall not harm you."  
Sonic stiffened as the robot approached. His instincts screamed to attack first, drive the robot away. Yet he held himself perfectly still.  
Metal Sonic studied the burn, scanning and re-scanning. "You have an eighty-three percent chance of death if I do not treat this immediately."  
Sonic already guessed this, because he sure wasn't getting better. But being scared made him angry, so he snapped, "What do you know about medicine? You're designed to run me down and kill me."  
Metal Sonic held out both hands, palms upward. "My hands have changed."  
The symbol of an emerald had been seared into each palm. It looked as if the robot had grasped a red-hot brand by accident.  
"How'd that happen?" Sonic asked.  
The robot looked at his hands. "They have appeared by degrees since the Great One restored me. They conduct a single aspect of the Master Emerald's power. Would you allow me to touch your wound?"  
Sonic's eyes followed each pointed finger to its pencil-sharp tip. "As long as chaos power is all you do."  
Metal Sonic curled his fingers inward, gazing at them. "I cannot help my monstrous appearance, Sonic."  
"It's kind of hard to forget." Sonic turned his face to the wall. "Do it. I can't watch."  
He expected to feel those claws sink into him. Instead, there was only the cool sensation of two metal hands being placed, ever so gently, across the burn. The coolness felt delightful against the heat that had plagued him for so long. Sonic dared look.  
Metal Sonic stood there with both hands on Sonic's chest, motionless as a statue. Sonic had never been this close to the robot before. He could see the detail in the red iris, how it was made of dozens of tiny LEDs. There were lenses and tracks and tiny filaments hidden under the black glass of his eyes.  
The eyes flicked toward his face, all that delicate machinery working together like the gears of a watch. "Do you feel anything?"  
Sonic considered. "Your hands are cold."  
Metal Sonic lifted them. The spots that his hands had covered were now almost completely healed, the burn faded to a brownish line.  
Sonic yelped. "How did you do that?"  
The robot placed his hands over the remainder of the burn. "I do not know. It is part of my Ancient hardware."  
Sonic looked down at the pointed, killer mechanical hands that rested so delicately against his chest. "How is it that you, of all people, have healing powers? I mean, what the heck."  
Ramussan, who had shamelessly eavesdropped on this conversation, said, "The island used to have seventy professional chaos healers, Warrior. They were part of our power. But the enemy targeted them and systematically wiped them out. We had to build robots who could perform the same duty. Eventually those were destroyed, too."  
"So without healers, the island crew died off?"  
"They were killed," Ramussan said sadly.  
"We wondered where they all went," Sonic muttered. "Amy was scared that the island compulsion fried their brains."  
Ramussan laughed. "The Speaker's blessing conveys no harm! It is a great honor to be sent to Angel Island. Only the most talented, most brilliant people are so selected. No, the last crew died in the great battle you call the Calamity. But their deaths ended the war and preserved the world for future generations."  
"That's ... comforting." Sonic looked at Metal Sonic, since he couldn't see Ramussan. "Eggman said that bad guys are coming to attack Angel Island. They want Maria."  
"Yes," Ramussan purred. "I have made use of the sensors that the invader left everywhere. The mechanic has given me limited access to the upper floors. The enemy ranged against us is vast."  
His voice sounded complacent, almost smug.  
Sonic said, "You don't seem too upset."  
"No," Ramussan said, chuckling. "Because as we speak, the mechanic has plumbed the depths of Angel Island and discovered the ARK cannon."

* * *

Tails stood in a wide, dark place with a ceiling so high he couldn't see it. A tiny thread of light came down from miles above. The walls were covered in transistors, capacitors and relays, exactly like his dream.  
But there was no power. No blue energy flowed through the copper conductors-it was silent, cold, dead.  
Yet Tails laughed. He threw his arms wide and laughed, spinning in a circle. "I found you!" he shouted up the throat of the ARK cannon. "I found you and I can fix you now!"

The end


End file.
